“People aren’t accountable around here” is a phrase uttered often. It’s also a common misdiagnosis, a clue that there is a bigger issue to be reckoned with.
To doggedly complain about the lack of accountability – and not develop the behaviors essential to address the issue – is to be complicit in disguising or lying about the realities that must be addressed.
De-coding accountability issues is to identify what people are really saying or thinking. Here are five phrases you won’t hear often, however are communicated frequently:
1) Their lack of accountability mirrors our deficiency in being accountable as leaders.
2) We can’t get people to function like the machines they were in the past.
3) The culture within which we operate is so powerful (read: dysfunctional) people don’t dare take responsibility.
4) We don’t know how to effectively empower others to own their results.
5) Let’s ignore the fact that the team is over-burdened with deliverables, making it impossible for them to fully achieve then pretend accountability is their issue, not ours.
Accountability is a product, produced through the culmination of our behaviors and the system within which we operate. It’s not where we begin – it’s where we end.
When you hear the next person complain about the deficit of accountability, what will you choose to build and develop?
Image courtesy of amenic181 at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
