Every leader I’ve ever met sees accountability as a foundational ingredient in a healthy and sustainable culture. The problem is, as is often the case with leadership and management ideas, we use the word without really understanding what it means.
Usually, we make the mistake of holding on to one or both of these hidden beliefs:
- We have a deeply held association between accountability and punishment — instead of considering it a tool to help people unlock their highest self.
- We have a deeply held assumption that accountability is a one-off event — rather than thinking it’s a long-term personal conversation between manager and employee.
It’s ironic because most of us have had at least one experience that runs counter to that. When someone in a position of authority in our life — a boss, a parent, a teacher — didn’t let us take the easy way out: “This is where you are right now. This is where you say you want to be. Based on what I’ve learned in my life, this is what it’s going to take to get there. Because I care about you, I see it as my job to let you know when you go off track.”
So why are we depriving our employees of that kind of experience?
https://hbr.org/2016/10/do-you-understand-what-accountability-really-means