13Keep the team on track with 200 per cent accountability
‘99 per cent of all failures come from people who have a bad habit of making excuses.’
George Washington Carver
Several years ago, a major Australian bank was accused of having a toxic culture. The CEO declared in the media that the middle management was the cause of the poor culture. I still remember how perplexed I was when I read that. The CEO was publicly demonstrating image management and a lack of personal accountability — the very opposite of a growth-minded response.
Everyone is accountable for culture, but senior leadership is most accountable. Unfortunately, as soon as senior leaders fail to take accountability, they make it unsafe for everyone else to do the same. Image management becomes rife. Challenger safety is impossible. You can imagine how psychologically safe those middle managers felt about giving feedback to the CEO on his or any other senior management behaviour.
Unfortunately, this is not restricted to CEOs and senior management. It's commonplace at all levels of organisations. Over the past two decades we've guided thousands of leaders through live feedback sessions with their team, using our 360° assessment as the framework for discussion. Our experience is that, when leaders are confronted with blind spots and weak spots through their team's feedback, they immediately start defending, blaming, rationalising.
‘I do communicate with you. You just don't listen.’
‘I have to micromanage because ...
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