Publisher: Criffel Publishing
Pages: 142
Genre: Business
Format: Kindle
What happens when businesses, families or individuals fail to be accountable for their actions and decisions? It can be devastating for business results, relationships and reputations. Culture Without Accountability - WTF? What’s The Fix? is full of real life stories of what accountability looks like, what can go wrong without it, and offers a proven process for installing an accountability-based culture—a platform for success in business and in everyday life. Drawing on their combined years of experience in senior global leadership roles at Motorola, Julie Miller and Brian Bedford founded MillerBedford Executive Solutions in 2001. MillerBedford addresses issues that are limiting the progress of organizations, and increases business success by improving strategy, culture, and leadership. And their clients actually report having fun in the process!
For More Information
- Culture Without Accountability is available at Amazon.
- Pick up your copy at Barnes & Noble.
What are you
most proud of accomplishing so far in your life?
We don’t really sit back thinking of the things we are proud of – but
we do feel that others trust us to do what we say we are going to do. We can be counted on. People trust us and they know we are positive
people always ready for a good laugh!
How has your
upbringing influenced your writing?
Our book on Accountability is actually dedicated to our parents. From an early age we both learned the
importance of doing what you said you would do.
We learned that “your word” defines who you are and what others think of
you or can expect from you.
When and why
did you begin writing?
Other than a few articles that we wrote when we first started our
business together in 2001, we really only started seriously writing a few years
ago. Over the past several years, we noticed a decline in
accountability in the world around us: many
companies, as well as in organizations, sports, and even families. It seemed that every time we read the news
there was another story of someone vehemently denying that they did this or
were involved in that, only to later be proved otherwise. That combined with when we work with
companies to help them establish the kind of culture they needed to be
successful, each of them listed accountability as one of the things they would
like to improve. As we thought more
about the topic, successful families, economies, communities, and organizations
all have accountability at their foundation. We weren’t raised in a climate
where accountability didn’t exist and didn’t really relish the idea of living
where accountability doesn’t exist, so we thought we might be able to help make
a difference.
Do you
recall how your interest in writing originated?
It really began as an attempt to solve a problem that existed. We are experienced hi-tech professionals
groomed in a culture where if you see a problem, you try to figure out if there
are ways you can help resolve it. So at
first we looked around to see if anyone else had written something that
scratched our itch about accountability, and when we didn’t see anything like
what we had in mind, we decided we’d write a book on the topic.
When did you
first know you could be a writer?
Probably when people started reading some of the things we’ve written:
our book and our blogs and saying that they really appreciate what we are
saying and look forward to the next things we post. Many have shared what we’ve written with
their co-workers or children. Having
what we’ve written get passed on to others is really the highest compliment to
us.
What
inspires you to write and why?
I guess we have an eye on all stories about accountability these days
and like to share them as examples for people to use to improve aspects of
their life whether their personal lives or their professional lives. Usually we’ll get aggravated about something
we see or hear on the news or notice in our everyday lives and feel we need to
chime in!
What
genre are you most comfortable writing?
Non-fiction
What
inspired you to write your first book?
Well, we actually tried not to be inspired! We hoped what we had wanted to write about
had already been written, but no such luck!
The stories kept piling up as did the problem that needed a solution, so
the writing began!
Who or what
influenced your writing once you began?
We would say the need to be relevant and practical. First of all capturing all the ideas and
stories we wanted to share and doing it in a way that is helpful to others
rather than critical was very important to us.
The other thing that was important was for our book to be something that
was a quick read and immediately gave the reader action steps to take if they
wanted to fix accountability in their own area of influence.
What do you
consider the most challenging about writing a novel, or about writing in
general?
The challenge for us is agreeing on how things should be stated. Brian is Scottish and Julie is American, a
Texan to be more specific, and how we each would choose to say things is
different! Depending on who the audience
is has a bearing on who wins the argument!
Did writing
this book teach you anything and what was it?
Since this was the first book we’ve written, we learned all about the
process of getting a book to the point of being published. It taught us that we could do this together
without killing each other! Seriously
it’s pretty tedious work for two raving extroverts – the editing, the editing,
the editing - thankfully we had a great
editor, Jan Williams working with us and she was so patient! We also had a great book designer, Mayapriya
Long who brought her professional expertise to layout and so many other areas
of design. We were also guided by a book
shepherd, Stephanie Barko that translated all the new terms and really led us by the hand on what to do
and with whom to partner.
Do you
intend to make writing a career?
As it facilitates our consulting practice, yes.
Have you developed a specific
writing style? What is your greatest strength as a writer?
We would say our writing style is practical and to the point. We believe we are guided by our many years of
worldwide business experience – so that’s what the reader has to gain from us. We think our strength is we aren’t
theoretical about our suggestions. We
highlight practical, real-world examples that people can clearly learn from and
we speak from a place of actually having done the work - so our readers can get
a sense of our practicality as well as the fact that we like to have fun when
we work.
What is your
favorite quality about yourself?
We both really enjoy people. We
have fun with our clients and enjoy developing lasting relationships with them
to help them with issues they have as well as learning from them along the
way. Some people are much too
serious. We believe you can be serious
about the results, and have fun as you achieve them.
What is your
least favorite quality about yourself?
Knowing when enough is enough.
We tend to get really invested in our clients and sometimes find ourselves
working harder at solving their problems than they do. This is always a good time to back away a bit
and assess if we are on target.
What is your
favorite quote, by whom, and why?
As above,
so below – We like to say that Brian said this first…Certainly it is one of his
favorites. Basically, the idea is,
people will look to their leaders to see how they behave or how they act and
pattern their own behavior according to what they see. So employees will watch their leaders,
children will watch their parents or teachers and pattern their behavior based
upon what they see. A good reason to
model the sort of behavior you expect of others!
In 2001, drawing on their respective years of experience in senior global leadership at Motorola, Julie Miller and Brian Bedford joined forces to establish MillerBedford Executive Solutions. MillerBedford helps businesses and organizations improve strategy, culture, and leadership, while addressing issues that limit success. And their clients actually have fun in the process!
Their latest book is the business book, Culture Without Accountability - WTF? What's The Fix?
For More Information
Thanks for the interview and for posting it on your site. We appreciate it!
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