It’s time for us to talk about Accountability!

(If you had an internal reaction to that sentence, you are probably not alone.) 

As leaders we don’t like to talk about accountability, and our team members may like it even less. 

Accountability can have a sense of the punitive to it; when things don’t go well, accountability conversations can be focused on what went wrong, and who was responsible.  That is not the basis for an engaging and energizing conversation, and it’s not helpful to us achieving our goals and delivering on our mission.

Let's explore how we can flip the script...

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I retain only one or two bits of wisdom from classes I attend, or books I read. One that has impacted my leadership comes from “The Five Disfunctions of a Team,” by Patrick Lencioni:

The team you lead is not your primary team.

Another way to say it, “The team you belong to must come ahead of the team you lead.”

Why it Matters

Success is built on trust and collaboration.  Gone are the days of siloed strategy and leadership.  To build trust and collaboration, leaders must shift their focus up and across from the team they lead, to the team of peers they belong to. 

Of course, we must lead and manage our direct teams to create vision, shared goals, expectations, and measures of success, but we also must coach, mentor, and push decision making downward to empower our teams to create their own shared victories.

After all, your team of direct reports should be functioning as their own primary team.

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In leadership, we used to think of change as a discreet event, a new platform implementation, a new org structure, the acquisition of a practice or company. These days it seems that the pace of change is unrelenting! Even a period of uncertainty can demand that leaders move into a mode of leading change.

How can we help our teams (and ourselves) navigate through these changes in a way that balances wellbeing, inclusion, psychological safety, and compassion with the criteria for ensuring the success of a change initiative?

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In my conversations with leaders recently, I hear questions about similar issues that all of us are faced with right now about retention, engagement, leading across the generations, and addressing burnout and wellbeing.

In these situations, there is no easy answer.  Leadership is art and science, but it skews more toward art. A tool may not be the right answer, but an approach may.

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While it’s the last of the four stages of psychological safety in the workplace, challenger safety certainly isn’t the “least”. Because, challenger safety provides you the opportunity as a leader to “back your team” and allow it to innovate.

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Once you feel included and like it’s safe to learn from your mistakes in a new role in your workplace, you’ll feel like you want to contribute to your team...To share what you’ve learned to move the team forward. Which is essentially what contributor safety allows you to do.

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When you’re brand new to a role with a company, learning “how to” is one of your biggest responsibilities. Just as big a responsibility for your leadership team is the allowance you’re afforded to make mistakes so you can learn without fear of repercussion.

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When starting a new role at a company, it is your right to be included. You don’t need to earn that right by “proving yourself” because you’re the “new sheriff” in town.

As you help all your team members feel included, you’re setting the groundwork for intentional success.

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Maximizing your time and energy as a leader is often painful.

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Every person who ever led a team, company, or corporation has their own beliefs about what it takes to be successful in that leadership role. And, nobody is “wrong” or “right”.

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As the COVID-19 fourth wave strikes, it’s clearly exacerbating issues that clinical workers are experiencing, seemingly in perpetuity.

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