A leader argues that most executives focus on holding others accountable when they should focus on themselves first. Leaders tolerate mediocrity, avoid hard conversations, and fail to model their own standards. Real accountability starts with self-examination and self-demonstration.
Chapters
We're in North Carolina today getting ready to give a talk to a couple hundred leaders on the topic of reframing accountability. So let me challenge you with something I hear from leaders all the time. They say that we need to hold our people more accountable, right? I'm sure you've heard that message or said that, and I actually don't think that's always the real problem. I find that the real issue is that most leaders are actually under-accountable to themselves. We say we want higher standards, but we actually tolerate mediocrity. Prettying ourselves. We say communication matters, but we avoid hard conversations. We say that accountability is important, but we don't model it consistently. So here's the truth: accountability doesn't actually start with what you demand from others. It actually starts with what you demonstrate, because your team will never consistently exceed the standard that you walk The best leaders I've ever worked with, they hold up the mirror first. So before they ask why aren't they performing, they ask themselves, where am I not being clear, consistent, or courageous? See, when you raise your level of self-accountability, you don't have to force accountability on others. It actually becomes the culture. So I'm curious, what's one area where you need to hold yourself more accountable as a leader? If you drop it in the comments, and if you're building leaders in your organization, this is the conversation that we need to be having.
