Lousy Leaders Enjoy Swinging the Stick of Accountability
Lousy leaders enjoy swinging the stick of accountablilty.
Ineffective leaders might ask, “How do I hold people accountable?” Their real question is, “How do I pressure resistant people into doing what I want them to do?”
When leaders ask how to hold others accountable, ask them, “How are you holding yourself accountable?”
Effective accountability:
#1. Accountability is for people who row together. If you aren’t rowing in the same direction, accountability becomes threat and punishment.
#2. Hold yourself accountable before holding others accountable. Openly develop your leadership if you expect people to develop theirs.
#3. Focus accountability on personal growth and development that adds value to self, customers, and colleagues.
Nurture growth in people that produces useful results.
6 steps toward accountable growth:
- Say, “Imagine you’re adding even more value to teammates and/or customers. What’s different about you?” (This question is for experienced, motivated team members.)
- What – new – behaviors might move you in the direction you want to go? (List three.)
- How might you put one of those behaviors into practice this week?
- What exactly will you say or do?
- When will you put your new behavior into practice? Find daily opportunities to practice new behaviors. Avoid conversations that begin with, “I didn’t have a chance to practice my new behavior.”
- Let’s get together in a week to debrief. I’ll ask,
- What did you do?
- How did it work?
- What did you learn?
- What would you like to do next week?
Get started:
Begin holding others accountable by holding yourself accountable.
Switch the above conversation to the “I” voice. Go to a colleague/boss and say, “I imagine myself adding even more value to the team. The thing that’s different about me is …”
Go through the first five points. At the end, ask, “Would you ask me the following questions?” (#6.)
How might leaders up their accountability game both for themselves and others?
Dan,
I see that leaders need to be more “pro active” doing more speaking less, follow through with what you start till finished. Granted they are bombarded from time to time, perhaps all the time, “the circle remains, until we break the link”.
Encouarge ourselves to press on and commit to all parties involved. So “being committed” to what you do is a driving force toward accountability in my eyes, if we don’t hold ourselves we surely can’t expect others to be accountable.
Hey Tim. The word “ourselves” really pops for me this morning. “Encourage ourselves to press on and commit…” That approach is part of personal accountablility.
Leading ourselves is expecting more of ourselves than we expect of others.
Right on Dan. Accountability isn’t something you do to people. It’s something you do for people.
Two lenses to that. One, we all sign up to do something for someone else (our customers, our workplace, etc) or ourselves. Being accountable is just being professional. It’s something to take pride in. And two, it’s a helping activity when working as a coach. We aren’t following up on people. We are helping them follow through.
In my previous org we asked people to consider identifying an “accountability coach”. Someone outside of their reporting lines to help hold them accountable to whatever it was they said they would do. This helped emphasize that accountability was a personal responsibility.
As a leader, it’s my goal to help people see accountability as something they do for themselves. Taking pride in “taking account” leans accountability discussions towards a positive learning experience, even when the person has fallen short.
Goodmorning Alf. Great seeing you here today. I can always count on you for sanity when it comes to accountability. Your approach has helped me.
I’ve noticed four things that work for me when it comes to personal development. (Off the top of my head. There are probably more.)
It has to be a behavior.
It has to be simple.
I need trigger points to remember to do it.
An accountability partner is the difference between average and exceptional.
Your reference to accountability outside reporting lines frees people to reach high! Love it.
Great article! Holding people accountable to the “results” in a constructive way is how mature organizations grow. I always tell my folks that as leaders, we can’t be afraid to hold others accountable, but we also have to be open enough to be held accountable by our team members.
Exactly! The term “constructive” is a mouth full. Accountability as construction rather than beating people up! That’s the ticket.
Dear Dan,
I appreciate the concept of accountability.Without accountability, leaders become manipulators. Being in position, it is easy to hold someone accountable. But it is not leadership. Leaders should take accountability on behalf of their team. They should also stand when the situation demands their presence. Unless leaders stand for others, others do not accept them as the leader. It is the game of intention. The person having right intention starts moving towards leadership journey. But, if a high designated person escapes its responsibility, it stops to become the leader.
Leaders create the path and inspire others to follow it. Accountability means taking responsibility when the case of crisis but encouraging others to take responsibility when time demands.
Thanks Dr. Gupta. I hadn’t thought about being accountable on behalf of the team. Powerful idea.
Leaders stand up FOR their team. Leaders stand WITH their team. It seems that being accountable in these areas is a foundation to a culture of accountability.
Dear Dan,
An interesting post with the fundamental key to success!
Remaining accountable to the team and other stakeholders can be an essential attribute of the successful leader. This is how an individual commitment comes for fulfilling the business plans with cooperation and support of others. A professional approach calls for clarity of goals, preparedness and the aim of completing the business tasks in time per the set plans. Good productivity is too ensured leading to overall satisfaction and building a right good image in the minds of ultimate customers.
It’s a must for long-term success with desired output!
Thanks Dr. Asher. If we’re going to hold ourselves accountable, it’s necessary to know the standard. What are the expectations we have for ourselves? What are the expectations the organization has for us? Nicely said.
So accountability =/= blame? Wow, I know lots of leaders who didn’t get that memo! I’m not so sure about the rowing analogy: a very obvious group of people who are all rowing in the same direction are galley slaves, and there’s not much true accountability there.
As we say in the Army, “Lead by example”. If you want your employees (or children) to be accountable, it must start with you as the leader (parent). Hypocrites are not very effective leaders, to be sure. It can be very difficult working with adults, as they are expected to do their jobs
Accountability, the ONE word in all walks of life that so many run away from as fast as they can.
Here’s a personal rule that helps ensure you use accountability in the appropriate manner. “Only hold people accountable after you have set clear expectations that set them up for success in the first place. Then if they stumble, self check to ensure that your behaviors/actins truly did set them up for success before holding them accountable.”