5 Ways to Make Yourself Accountable as a Leader
We all need to be accountable to others to be our best selves. Leaders ought to be responsible to others to be the best CEO, COO, CFO or other role they fill. Absent accountability, leaders can lose track of their personal and organization’s mission, vision and values. If leaders are not held accountable, character and personal responsibility can also get derailed.
What is accountability?
It’s having someone we trust provide us feedback, challenges, and speaking up when we have missed the mark. It isn’t always relying on others for input, but also reflecting on when we listened to someone else’s comments and how we react to those responses.
According to a 2017 Lee Hecht Harrison report on Leadership Accountability, here are five ways leaders demonstrate accountability:
Holding others accountable for high standards of performance
Tackling tough issues and making difficult decisions
Effectively communicating the strategy throughout the organization
Expressing optimism about the company and its future
Displaying clarity about external trends in the business environment
Why leadership accountability is important
Organizations with leaders who practice accountability have higher levels of employee engagement and perform better than those with leaders who lack accountability. Employees want to know what is expected of them to help their organization succeed and be successful in their own roles. While we know leadership accountability leads to many positive results, consider the impact lack of leadership accountability has within an organization. The same Lee Hecht Harrison report indicates 72% of respondents from 2,000 organizations across the globe think leadership accountability is critical to organization success, and those same respondents indicated only 31% are satisfied with the degree of leadership accountability in their organization. That is quite an answerability gap.
Make yourself more accountable
Need help developing your leadership skills and the aptitudes of other leaders in your organization? I partner with a great team at the Townsend Leadership Group who have been trained by Dr. John Townsend in leadership and culture initiatives. Take the first step in becoming more accountable and contact me at laura@conoverconsulting.com.