Accountability

You hear the word a lot. Usually, it’s at an administrative meeting where someone is lamenting that certain teams or employees don’t want to be “held accountable.” My question is: who does?

To hold someone accountable is to compel them to do something, whether they want to or not. If that’s how you frame your job as a leader, you’ve already lost the battle. Your goal shouldn’t be to hold others accountable, but to have them hold themselves accountable. Only then will you get the best they have to offer.

People can be accountable to a lot of things. They can be accountable to an idea, like a mission or a goal. They can be accountable to a team, where they feel bound by a social contract with people they care about. They can be accountable to their own conscience and their aspirations. All of those are compelling sources of motivation. But if they’re only accountable to your authority, out of fear of punishment or disapproval, watch out. That kind of accountability can be displayed on the surface while it’s simultaneously undermined in a thousand tiny, resentful ways. 

The road to accountability isn’t compliance, it’s enrollment. It’s paved with a constant effort to include and inform others at every level of problem-solving and decision-making. That kind of accountability is much harder to create, but it’s many times more valuable in the end.

If no isn’t an option, then neither is yes. What you want is yes.