Next Level Mutual Accountability

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Read time: 6 minutes

What is THE key habit of the strongest leadership teams?

Answer - they hold each other to account.

The very best ones do so to a high standard. But what does that look like in practice?

This is the second blog on mutual accountability and the sixth and last in the core leadership team series. More will follow, but the first six represent a set.

The topic for the first two was collective responsibility - they are here and here. The third and fourth focused on interdependence. The fifth, and first on mutual accountability, is here.

Achieving a decent sense of mutual accountability is difficult enough. Taking it to the next level requires the most robust leadership culture and a very high degree of trust.

Here’s four elements to consider.

1.Accelerated decision making

Let’s get to the key advantage first.

When it is clear that everyone around the table is accountable to everyone else, better decisions can be taken more quickly.

It might seem as though the latter does not follow the former.

Collective responsibility is a precursor of mutual accountability. When these two are combined it means that, by definition, all team members must be on board with each other. There is no need to repeatedly build a consensus in order to ‘bring people with you’ because they are already there.

If everyone is going to own some part of a decision, they do not fight participation. When every team member knows that they carry some responsibility for every decision they spend far less time establishing who owns what. Dividing responsibilities is a far quicker process than starting with a request for volunteers.

Determining the direction of travel can lead to a more heated discussion, and so it should because everyone has something riding on it. Heated discussions are often a healthy sign of a team that will actually make a decision rather than postpone one out of fear.

Once a decision is made there is less delay to implementation because everyone has a stake, and knows that the team depends on them to do their bit.

When individuals know they can hold their colleagues accountable, and vice versa, the team moves faster because everyone trusts that their colleagues will follow through.

Mutual accountability means that leadership team members leave meetings inspired that their time together will lead to progress.?

2. Ensuring psychological safety

A leadership team that feels psychologically safe has richer discussions and makes decisions which stick.

As with trust, psychological safety is not a switch which can be turned on and off. It takes time to build, with a set of regularly reviewed and unbreakable ground rules.

People need to know that their leadership team colleagues mean what they say and do what they say they will do.

High level mutual accountability requires high level trust. That is the bedrock of high-performing leadership teams, enabling wholly honest conversations about team performance and the challenges ahead.

Teams with high level trust also have a lot of vulnerability on show. They say where they have messed up, not yet finished a task or are stuck. They go into problem solving mode quickly, with an intention of getting a meaningful outcome. No one talks in code.

When colleagues know they can truly rely on each other, they feel more comfortable taking calculated risks. They are more likely to innovate and share both their successes and glorious failures. They know that their colleagues will not judge them for ‘taking one for the team’ to see if another way would lead to a breakthrough.

Psychological safety means the practice of team members giving constructive feedback to each other is normalised. No one has to work around the defensive reaction of a colleague and all are aware that feedback flows both ways.

Better still, fewer serious mistakes are made because their colleagues can see them coming and will intervene. It is not just one long political drama where team members wait for their colleagues to mess up so they can move up the pecking order.

Fun though it can be for less senior colleagues to watch, the rest of the organisation can be inspired when their leaders truly set the tone. Employees who see their leaders holding themselves and each other accountable in a respectful way will see the benefits in their workplace dynamics.

3. Bolstering ethical standards

As I say to every leadership team I work with, the culture of an organisation is determined by how the leaders behave.?

Ethical standards are the cornerstone of success. If you cannot trust your team members to behave ethically in their work, you likely cannot trust their behaviour around the leadership team table. A strong sense of mutual accountability only bolsters standards of ethical behaviour amongst senior leaders.?

CEOs who know that team members will call each other out when it matters the most can sleep a little easier. The random events which have a disastrous impact on reputations and finances, and often worse on individuals, are less likely to happen. I am talking about the person who swings the lead on their expenses, ignores the health and safety issue or cuts corners on legal processes to save a little time.

An organisation’s ethics form a key determinant of the principles which underpin its day to day work. When individuals know and understand the principles upon which it works, decision making is much easier. Ethical standards are bolstered because they are integrated into decision-making processes, and because the rest of the organisation sees that they truly matter.

It also means that the leadership team focuses on authentic long-term success. They do not game metrics to create a false impression, nor do they focus on symptoms and ignore underlying issues. They also see no merit in a perennial focus on the low-hanging fruit when their collective power can tackle the bigger problems.?

4. No room for toxicity

When leaders hold each other to account, it makes it far easier to cascade accountability throughout the organisation. A lack of cultural norms at the top leads to inconsistency at best.

Middle leaders are better positioned, and consequently more likely, to hold their own teams accountable when the same applies to them. They can also engage in some mutual accountability with each other; it does not have to be reserved for the top tier.

A strong accountability culture leaves no room for toxicity. Toxic behaviour can only emerge, or be allowed to fester, when there is a lack of challenge.

Leadership teams who have mutual accountability at the heart of their culture do not spend hours arguing about resource allocation for their individual responsibilities. They do not build a clique of followers or grow an informal empire

Workplace politics absorbs precious time, and saps everyone’s energy. When mutual accountability is strong at the senior level, it creates a foundation for healthy culture throughout the organisation.

Remember that

1. Leaders who hold each other accountable find problems early, and can therefore address them. Leadership teams that learn the best lessons most quickly have the best chance of beating the competition.
2. The pain endured of getting to a strong culture of mutual accountability is greatly outweighed by the time wasted by a team which never bothers to make a start.

How can I help you?

1. One to one coaching programmes for senior leaders who are swamped by their jobs so they can thrive in life. Click here to discover where you are on your journey from Frantic to Fulfilled? Just 5 minutes of your time and you will receive a full personalised report with guidance on your next steps.

2. Team coaching programmes - working IN a team is not the same as working AS a team and yet they are often treated as if they are the same. I help teams move from the former to the latter, and generate huge shifts in productivity and outcomes.

3. Talks, workshops and seminars - including topics relevant to the two areas above plus explaining Gen Z to Gen X and dealing with the intergenerational workplace. Speaker showreel here.?

4. My book The Snowflake Myth will be published in 2025 - to receive a free chapter (when available ??) please click here.