I started the Simon Leadership Alliance with the commitment to help generate extraordinary results for the most courageous, the hungriest, and the “accountable.”  So why are so many “accountable” leaders I work with not getting extraordinary results?  They have not mastered the true purpose of “accountability.”

I recently led a two-day leadership workshop for a service company.  The president of the company was charismatic, demanding, empathetic, and personally accountable.  His team knew exactly what to do, when to do it, and how to do it.  He had empowering one-on-one conversations with his team members.  His team members respected him, and each said “you can count on me to achieve my quarterly objectives.”  Their promises were sincere, their plans were thorough, their results… lackluster.

I work with a CEO of an electronics company.  His marketing chief is top-brass, his relationship managers are stellar, and his sales team is on a rampage.  The Marketing team stated “we are committed to hitting the marketing targets.”  The relationship managers stated, “you can hold us accountable for ridiculously devoted customer service”.  The sales team said you can count on us to “have a solid pipeline and to meet with our prospects with consistency and focus.”  The results… abysmal. 

And finally, a leadership team that I coach is committed to changing the way that their company does business.  Each member of the team is personally accountable for generating several millions of dollars of revenue for the company.  In their effort to change their company’s culture, they each point out, “I am doing everything I committed to do.”  The results: a change in culture that is barely noticeable!?!

What’s missing?  Great leaders have many times achieved their position due to the very reason that they can’t move their teams forward.  They have learned how to be individually accountable.  As they move up the leadership chain, they then help their team members learn to be individually accountable themselves.  And, they think that they are teaching their team members the “right” thing.

However, they have missed the greatest of leadership opportunities:  to step out of the way and to “replace” personal accountability with “joint accountability.”  They missed that their primary purpose is not to hold others accountable, but TO BUILD ACCOUNTABILTY AS A SYSTEM WITHIN THE TEAM.

All of the three conversations above were basically the conversation, “I am accountable.”  Such conversations lead to the ordinary. 

Extraordinary team results require new conversations.  Team conversations must move from “I am accountable” to “how are we collectively accountable?” 

If you want to build a collectively accountable team, here are seven “conversations” you must develop:

Enrollment – I know we can’t get this done by ourselves, whom can we enlist to make this happen?

Overlapping – Where are our actions overlapping, such that our duplication is getting in the way of our results?

Coverage – Where are we not dedicating our resources where we need to?

Commitment – Where can we look to find an area where we are not committed?

Trust – How much do we really trust each other to deliver on our promises?

Self-Disclosure – Where are we holding back our belief in each others’ ability to deliver on their stated task?

Strategy – How much should we focus our conversations on tasks vs. how much should we focus on our strategy?

Personal accountability is an easy conversation:  “I am in.”  “Read my lips.”

Team accountability is more interesting.  To grow an accountable team, you must teach the team members to have the raw conversations that demonstrate the are collective commitment to each other. 

If you are committed to extraordinary results, stop being so accountable!  Instead, start moving your team to the conversations that will contribute to their learning, their collective commitment, and to their self-sufficiency.

If you are interested in moving your team to consistently achieve extraordinary results, please contact msimon@simonalliance.com.