Leadership Pillar: Accountability

Posted by on October 5, 2009 · Leave a Comment 

The first thing every leader needs to know about accountability is that the buck stops at your office door.

LEADERSHIP STARTS WITH YOU.

We tend to always look the other way when things go wrong. But, if we are leaders, then we first need to be looking in the mirror. If our employees do something wrong then maybe we need to be better leaders. If our co-workers cannot complete a task, then maybe we should be explaining things better. If a child does not listen then perhaps we need to change our parenting tactics. The point is we need to first make sure we have done every thing in our power to examine ourselves before we push off the blame!

ASK THE RIGHT QUESTIONS

The second thing we need to do, in order to be accountable for our leadership, is make sure we are asking the right questions. When a problem occurs, the first inclination may be to ask, “Who did this and why did they do it?” However, we really should be starting our questions with “what” and “how.”

Here are some examples of what I mean:

¨ Instead of, “Who made this mistake?” Try asking, “How can I do a better job to prevent this mistake next time?”

¨ Instead of, “Who missed the deadline?” Try asking, “What can I do to move the project forward?”

¨ And instead of, “Who dropped the ball on this?” Try asking, “How can I help in this situation?”

Great leaders and coaches ask the right questions. Great leaders never punish in public—they praise in public. Leaders know what to say and when to say it. Great leaders know how to communicate. (Last month’s article gave insight on becoming a better communicator.)

THERE ARE NO ONE-WAY STREETS

The third factor is that the accountability street not only goes right and left, but in all directions. The problem with companies in trouble is when the leaders think they are not accountable to anyone, but believe their employees should still be accountable to them. Everyone is accountable to someone. I am accountable to every employee who works for me. I am accountable to everyone for whom I work. I am also accountable to every client and referral source. We all need to be accountable. The only way people remain on a nutritional diet or change their lifestyle through fitness is that they remain accountable to themselves and someone else. The chance of you following through with a fitness goal increase by 90% once you have more than two people who work out with you. I call this accountability to yourself and others.

Finally, if you are a person who is always looking for excuses and pushing off blame on others, then you need to change. Your entire professional and personal career will change if you start looking in the mirror first. If every member of our society took care of all their own issues instead of worrying about everyone else; what kind of world would we live in today? We need to start a movement in which everyone is accountable to their own actions and concentrates on making themselves better first before worrying about anyone else.

Then we need to work with others as a team to improve. An unequivocal sign of true leadership is a when you look first to become a better leader yourself, thereby impacting and helping more people.

Filed under Management & Leadership