After eight years on air and in podcast, The Boss Show hangs up its jersey (even though Jim hates sports metaphors). Jim and Steve reflect on eight years of building an audio jigsaw puzzle of enlightened leadership and work relationships. And finally, they explain “Rule #6.” To stay in touch with The Boss Show guys, visit PathForwardLeadership.com and LeadingBeyondEgo.com.

When things go wrong at work, what do we tend to do? Blame someone. That’s what the bad leader does, anyway. The good leader asks, “What’s going on here that allowed failure to happen? Are we setting people up for success? Does my team have the right resources, support, training, and processes? And are we consulting with the people who are actually doing the work?”

Ever made macaroni and cheese? You know a good recipe helps. And using that recipe as a foundation, but exercising creativity on top of it, is the key to success. The workplace isn’t much different from macaroni & cheese. So if you want to have influence – want to be a leader – you have to care about processes.

Last week, Steve & Jim explored how “ego” is the #1 obstacle to success and satisfaction in the workplace. This week: what does a “beyond ego” workplace look like? How does a “beyond ego” leader interact with coworkers? Steve offers a vision – a vision he’ll guide participants toward in a nine-week online course he’s launching on March 11 – “Leading Beyond Ego” (leadingbeyondego.com).

Ego. As in “his enormous ego” or “her fragile ego.” As in, “She’s a control freak” or “I’m afraid to talk to my boss.” Ego – the #1 obstacle to success and satisfaction in the workplace. You can’t eradicate it, since it exists for a critical purpose – self-protection. But when old ego strategies have outlived their usefulness, but are still conditioned into our workplace behavior, we CAN choose differently …

In the 2nd of two parts, Jim & Steve lay out "The Contract" – their model that defines what to pay attention to in order to increase accountability in your team or organization. And remember, "accountability" is simply about doing what you say you're going to do. If you're not maximizing your accountability, why even do what you're doing?

Accountability. Getting done what you say you’re going to do. To truly live up to your potential, you have to maximize your accountability. But how? It’s a process. It can be taught. And it builds on a foundation that Jim & Steve lay out in the first of a two-parter on building high accountability employees, teams, and organizations.