Uncommon Accountability

9HOLDING THE TEAM CAPABLE

As a leader, when you shift from accountability as consequences to accountability as personal ownership, it changes the way you lead and manage. As we have already pointed out, when your thinking shifts, your actions shift as well. Let's look at how this works in greater detail.

If my thinking (conscious or unconscious) is that I can hold someone else accountable, then the actions that naturally flow from that thinking center around trying to force my employees to take specific actions under the threat of punishment. The punishment can range from verbal chastisement, to the removal of favorable conditions, to increased oversight, to loss of perks, and ultimately firing. In fact, managers get pretty creative in finding new ways to “force” productive behaviors. In one company we worked with, if the sales reps didn't hit a minimum level of production, they were required to wash their manager's car and perform other humiliating tasks. (If at this point in the book you think you've just found a new technique to apply with your team, then stop reading and give the book to someone else – there is little hope for you!)

Contrast that with the thinking that accountability is ownership based on free‐will choice. If that is my mindset as a leader, then a completely different set of actions arise. With the realization that I can't really force someone to do something ...