Hey everyone! In last week’s post, we got real about some of the challenges that face leaders of leaders, specifically as it relates to accountability in the workplace. To quickly remind you on where we landed, we recognized that as leaders we’ve got to set precedence and lead by example. It’s the only way that we can expect each team member to fall in line and be held accountable. This encourages them to do their part to make the team successful and powerful. In today’s post, part two, we’ll take a look at what can happen when we practice selective leadership accountability. This week’s post is short and spicy so grab a cup of coffee, my kids seem to love all things pumpkin spice, and let’s get into it.
Accountability means no excuses. You acknowledge your responsibility for your actions, decisions, and policies. You take ownership of their consequences. If you are a leader, you expect your team to be accountable to you and themselves, but they also expect (rightly!) that you will be accountable to them. If you tell your team to exceed their expectations, you had better exceed yours as well.
A Case Study on Practicing Selective Accountability as a Leader
If a leader of leaders selectively holds staff accountable and especially obliges the leaders that report to them, then those same leaders won’t hold their leaders accountable. This is something I’ve spoken about in the past in my blog, Forget Loyalty, Choose Accountability.I reiterate this because it’s true and it’s a major bad habit for many leaders. As I say in my book, Serve Up, Coach Down:
“Loyalty should be based on contribution, not tenure… Only when people at any level are succeeding and giving their best—always looking to learn and get better—should they have and expect your loyalty.”
Let’s now look at Company B.
A Case Study on Company B
The President at Company B has four vice-presidents that are pretty good leaders, but one vice-president, let’s call him Larry, hasn’t been pulling his own weight. Mr President knows Larry’s family; they seem to always be going through some minor rough patch and poor Larry is all out of sorts. He can’t spend time with his direct reports and his region is struggling to execute their company goals. Mr P can’t understand why Larry’s regional LIMs are failing. They’re given all the same tools as their colleagues who work in different regions. Poor Larry can’t catch a break! It seems, according to Larry’s outlook, his team is filled with inept staff.
Of course, good ole’ Mr President never does anything about Larry. In fact, he continues to allow him to operate at a subpar level. He’s cutting him some slack, after all, life’s hard, it’s a tough market and now fish is raining from the sky and yada yada yada. Naturally, Larry’s own reports can’t meet with Larry, much less be coached by Larry, so they’re not getting the job done right. Mr P may need to lay some people off from this team, they just can’t seem to hack it.
The issue of accountability is compounded each level it goes down, making this leadership issue a cultural problem within the organization and team.
Another timeline of what went wrong:
- Staff at each level should be held to the same standards, especially LIMs (Leaders in the Middle). Larry, friend or not, isn’t performing. If he truly was Mr P’s friend, he’d do his job and make the business a success (or admit he needs help and maybe needs a break). But Larry’s kinda selfish and Mr P is practicing selective accountability. Thus, he turned a blind eye to his pal’s faults.
- Staff morale doesn’t exist under an inept leader. Even the best of the best performers will struggle under bad leadership. There could be real aces in Larry’s team. What’s sad is Mr P will never know because Larry doesn’t know his own reports.
- They’re about to be let go for poor performance when they’ve been abandoned at the post by their leader. If anyone should be fired, it should be Larry.
Final Thoughts on Leadership Accountability
As parents, guardians, or caregivers, we practice holding our kids accountable because we care about their future. As leaders, we need to practice that same commitment to our employees. Yes, we might not love them as much as our children, but investing in their success, both present and future,is just as important. We must practice leadership accountability for our sake, their sake, the company’s sake and that of the customers we serve.
Like I said last week, if you’ve found yourself guilty of any of the above, no worries, I can help. Reach out for a session, workshop, keynote presentation or read one of my bestselling leadership books.
