The Role of the Leader in Promoting Accountability

In creating an organization that is built for all outcomes, accountability is a visible practice. All team members are clear about their specific responsibilities. They are aware of the organization’s purpose, 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 empowered 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 the work is interrelated. For example, if one team member makes an error or falls behind schedule, she 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 even exists) allowing a more honest exchange among team members. In this environment of emotional safety, the upper brain performs at a higher level to drive performance because the negative energy of the fear factor is non-existent.

In a traditional culture with command and control leadership, however, the opposite is true. Although management demands and praises the value of accountability, it does not provide the resources and environment that enable accountability to flourish. This absence results in widespread confusion, distrust, and underachievement. Fear is the operative emotion driving lower brain behaviour for self-preservation and an impediment to performance thinking. Influential leaders are aware of these pitfalls and thus behave, and urge others to behave, in a manner that promotes safety, trust, accountability, and commitment to outcomes, all of which can only exist within positive emotional human energy.

“Leaders lead”, as the old saying goes. This is a simplistic view of what leaders actually do; it does not take into account the fact that not everything a leader does is worth following. So let’s revise this saying to be more specific: “Leaders lead by modeling effective behaviour.” In today’s complex organizations everyone must be an influential leader. Influential leaders are role models of accountability. Their appropriate behaviour comes from a conscious choice to live by their conviction, to change harmful mental models, and to manage their emotions. Their appropriate behaviour is a result of their well-developed skill of Positive Presence.

For example In health care this choice extends to the way they view their enormous responsibility for other people – from the internal senior management team to governing board to employees to physicians and other clinical providers to the patient population to the community at large. Accountability is a practical instrument that influential leaders use to keep themselves and those around them honest, focused, productive, and positive. Influential leaders know that an organization devoid of accountability is nothing but a collection of people who shift blame, feel victimized, procrastinate, and disguise their incompetence.

One way leaders can role-model accountability is transparency – to admit their own mistakes and vulnerabilities in the face of various responsibilities. For example, the leader can share a story in which he “dropped the ball” on an important project. He can explain the steps he took to recover from this event. The story can then be turned into a teaching moment that may inspire others to change their approach to avoid the negative outcome experienced by the storyteller. The point of this exercise, which is called power of story, is to show that a lack of accountability has the power to weaken even a strong performer and thus needs to be managed with vigilance.

Another way leaders can role-model accountability is to always, in any challenging situation or conflict, ask “how did I contribute to this problem?” This simple question must be followed by an actual evaluation of the leader’s role, because just posing the question is as good as screaming, “I didn’t do it!” This show of genuine concern indicates to others that the leader sees herself as accountable not only for the problem but also for the solution. Without the use of accountability and feedback you will be leading in the dark.

While accountability is effective in establishing behaviour based expectations for performance, the key is to remain focused on improved and effective behaviour change. Repeating ineffective behaviour that is revealed in feedback and accountability ultimately creates a great deal of damage to any relationship. Acknowledging a mechanism that identifies a behaviour I need to change is only of value when I commit to actually changing the behaviour. The key is, to move out of the past and focus on the change I desire. Accountability is a backward looking process. The key is what I am going to change and put into practice moving into the future. Accountability is like an MRI – it identifies what’s broken – you will still need to fix the problem. That comes with personal responsibility with the accountability process of daily purposeful and intentional alignment between what you say you believe and how you actually behave.