Do You Understand What Accountability Really Means?

As a leader, you have to ask yourself what you could have done yourself to keep yourself accountable to yourself and your subordinates. In my opinion, leaders should start their accountability with themselves inside a circle and then working in concentric circles around them, asking what others could be doing to advance the overall mission of the organization. For some leaders, it’s easy to point fingers and tell a subordinate what they did wrong, but it’s rare when one looks at themselves and tries to work out what went wrong with them.

Key Takeaways:

  • We have a deeply held association between accountability and punishment — instead of considering it a tool to help people unlock their highest self.
  • We have a deeply held assumption that accountability is a one-off event — rather than thinking it’s a long-term personal conversation between manager and employee.
  • . When someone in a position of authority in our life — a boss, a parent, a teacher — didn’t let us take the easy way out

“The problem is, as is often the case with leadership and management ideas, we use the word without really understanding what it means.”

https://hbr.org/2016/10/do-you-understand-what-accountability-really-means

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