In a collaborative culture with an influential leader that is skilled in Positive Presence™, accountability is a visible practice. All team members are clear about their specific responsibilities. They are aware of the organization’s mission, vision, values, and how they fit into this framework. They are given measures and tools to use in this framework. They are given measures and tools to use in determining if they are moving forward or falling behind on their objectives. They are emancipated to do their job, and they are rewarded for their efforts. The result is a high level of employee engagement with a vested interest in the success of the organization.
Accountability is indispensable in collaboration because collaborative work is interrelated. For example, if one team member makes an error or falls behind schedule, he must report it to the rest of the team to stem the consequences; failure to disclose a problem in one part could potentially damage the entire work. In addition, taking responsibility for errors is easier in a collaborative setting, where the focus is on correction rather than on blame. Thus, fear of retribution is minimal, if it exists at all, allowing for a more honest exchange among team members.
Is your work environment one of accountability or are you stuck in a traditional culture with command and control leadership where management demands and praises the value of accountability, but does not provide the resources nor the environment that enables accountability to flourish. If you’re stuck, it’s time to get un-stuck and get out… or get educated in the skills and behaviour competencies of Positive Presence. In doing so, you will have the tools and mindset to make positive change.
CORPORATE HARMONY is grateful to Dr. Michael E. Frisina for his contributions to this entry.
It is worth noting that leadership failure typically is not the result of the absence of technical skill, but in fact, incompetence in behavioural skill. You will likely gain higher levels of management responsibility based on your technical skill performance, but your overall leadership success is clearly dependent on your behaviour skills since senior leadership success is more strategic oriented rather than operational. The truth is that the so-called soft skills of behaviour are really the hard skills that create the measure of influence in leadership success. 
You’ve maybe heard the saying “Correcting Your Zero”. It refers to a starting point and sight-adjustment for rifle marksmanship. In essence, at the organizational level we have a misaligned zero of personal performance revealed by the effectiveness (or ineffectiveness) of relationships that adversely impacts the level of organizational outcomes. An Influential Leader does not allow this to happen. However, the challenge at the heart of transforming into a leader of influence is your ability to become sensitive to and understand the dynamics of human behaviour and creating and sustaining highly effective relationships. Taking time on a scheduled and recurring basis to “correct your zero” is the means to creating and optimizing the key personal relationships that drive organizational performance. 
Periodically, when serving in titled positions of leadership, it is imperative to self-evaluate your behaviour performance as a means of staying focused and on target to getting the right things done well. Many times we can best accomplish this self-assessment through the help of others. Feedback tools, used effectively with direct reports, are fundamental and essential to obtaining information relative to your leadership performance. 
Your ability to influence as a leader is directly proportional to how you choose to lead yourself and manage the impact of your behaviour on others. A few bad habits can nullify your influence on the people who desire for you to step up and lead them effectively. Often, people who have succeeded in achieving titled positions of authority get very protective of their habits. They may believe, sometimes falsely, that they have succeeded because of their behaviour habits, when in fact these very habits may now be holding back the performance of their departments and teams. 
Peter Drucker said it first, and we have heard it said many times since, that culture is everything to organizational performance. Even so, many organizational leaders still struggle with the behaviour competencies that seem vague, fuzzy, and soft yet so vital to the financial and productive prosperity necessary to sustain the organization. 
Knowing how to create and sustain highly functional teams is a leader’s duty. Team building is the product of understanding human behaviour not technical skill. Leaders must focus on behaviour skill competencies that allow technical skills to blend into a high level of workplace performance. This workplace performance translates into safety, quality, and service outcomes. Therefore, individual behaviour is at the heart of a people culture.
A number of thoughtful people have said many times, in a variety of ways, and it deserves repeating here: “People never connect and commit to an organization’s mission and vision until they first connect and commit to its leaders. Influential leaders by their very behaviour create connection, not “buy-in.” There are four vital strengths that ensure an Influential Leader’s success:
A cooperative attitude inhibits destructive competition. Cooperation, on the other hand, is the ‘new’ constructive competition. 
Cooperation is the act of participating, contributing, or helping to advance or accomplish a goal. It is similar to collaboration in that cooperation requires the input of many people. It is different from collaboration in that those involved in cooperation do not necessarily have to be members of the collaboration, and as such, these individuals or groups can have their own agendas but still contribute to the work of collaboration.