Leadership Principle #8: Courage and Accountability --- Why These Two Need Each Other
Leading a company takes courage. I don’t think anyone would deny that fact. And, CEOs have ultimate accountability. The buck stops here each and every time. However, it takes courage to hold people accountable, and unfortunately most people are not courageous. Suddenly, without these critical attributes, we have a problem at the leadership level that extends down throughout the organization.
For me, warning bells go off when hear a CEO say, “We really need more accountability around here.” What they’re really saying is they want others to be more accountable, not themselves. Holding yourself accountable first and foremost is hard! It takes real courage.
So what does courage look like in this situation? Courage is the ability to lead through uncertainty while acting confidently. Courage is giving credit to others, not just dolling out blame. Courage is assessing the situation and making a decision, knowing it’s your neck on the line. (Warning: This is never easy because you will rarely have total agreement for a decision).
Finally, courage is continuous learning throughout successes and failures. You will fail plenty of times, and within those failures are crucial pieces of information that will determine your future successes if you have the courage to examine those results, and hold yourself accountable for the decisions and actions that led you there.
Once you can hold yourself to that standard, the goal becomes to push accountability down the organization until finally you wind up with the ultimate success, peer-to-peer accountability. If you can instill collective accountability in your organization where each team member is accountable to each other, you are really set up for success.
On a tactical level, I coach my clients to develop a leadership style grounded in accountability by focusing on a few important practices.
#1 Recognize achievements as well as failures
#2 Provide encouragement for your team
#3 Always have a debrief and feedback process
Closing that loop in a positive and constructive manner fosters accountability, which allows for continuous learning.
Accountability doesn’t happen without courage, yet accountability is mission-critical for growing your business. These principles have to be addressed in your role as CEO, and I can help you do that.
This work is not easy, but having courage to do the right thing will always be the best decision for your organization. As Winston Churchill said, “Success is not final, failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts.”
Reach out if you are interested in learning about how I can help you develop accountability and courage in your leadership.