Expertise Marketplace - Professional Service Firm Marketing Blog:

I just received the most marvelous feedback from one of the readers of my monthly news letter, The Marketplace Master. It was a very thoughtful observation about one of my previous columns, in which the reader felt I had unfairly stereotyped female marketers.

This commentor said:

"By stereotyping women to marketing or PR (or anything), you pigeonhole women to stereotypes such as “women can only work in HR, PR, and marketing” which reinforces these age-old stereotypes that women are looking to shed. As you know, as marketers, we have to be careful with not only what we say, but how we say it."

I can only agree with his observations. Also,I find it somewhat amazing that anyone could have thought I was trying to diminish women marketers. I am one! But I reread my newsletter article, and indeed could see how he might have come to his conclusion.

Here's my lesson (re)learned: When it comes to managing peoples' expectations of our current capabilities as well as those to which we aspire, we should all slow down and imagine how our words and actions are being interpreted by others. Each of us leaves indelible impressions on others; let's be mindful of them.

I am riveted by the latest news on yet another politician found brazenly ignoring the fundamental purpose of his job. At what point do people lose their sense of accountability?

It's not only an enormous question for government; it's a huge question for business. (Just ask the CEOs of the big three US automakers.)

I've spent the last year exploring, among other issues, the topic of accountability in marketing and business development for professional service firms. Although I wouldn't claim this issue has the same moral underpinnings as what we've seen in the U.S. news lately, the notion of accountability looms large in the ultimate marketplace success of any professional service firm.

My take? There's not enough shared accountability. We've built our professional businesses on collaborating informally, and I'm not saying that's bad. But I think professional firms could do more to build a sense of shared accountability (among practitioners as well as marketing and business development professionals) for their marketplace success.

Anybody care to share some stories on how professional service firm leaders are helping their organizations to grow a sense of shared accountability for making marketplace gains?