What Accountability Sounds Like.
Duncan Skelton
Make a list of the boldest futures you dare to dream. I coach Global Leaders | Rock Climber | Endurance Athlete | Ex-Google | Create a Life You Love ??
Hi there ????. Ready to lead? "Acts of Leadership" helps people, (irrespective of title or tenure), expand their leadership range one experiment at a time. Each issue shares a [pro/e]vocative definition of leadership, an idea and an experiment.
Commitment
I committed to writing Acts Of Leadership weekly and hitting 'send' each instalment. I've done this for almost a year, and I've only been late a few times.
And what’s the definition of late? I might not have said it out loud. My intent has been to schedule this to your inbox at 07:30 EST / 12:30 GMT each week.
Once I was just plain late in writing and checking the content. I started too late. I felt the familiar pull of distraction —?I’ll just check LinkedIn one more time to make sure I’m up to date; and email. Ah, and I should respond to that WhatsApp ‘cos if I don’t do it now I’ll forget.
I would benefit from scheduling sacred time well in advance of my Tuesday deadline for this work. That might be my experiment this week, to implement daily pages and committed writing time.
Another time I was late was an avoidable error — I didn’t pay attention to the timezone setting when I scheduled the edition. I noticed I hadn’t received it to my test account about an hour after it should have gone and I was able to react in the moment and send it manually. Feels like an opportunity for better tooling and pipeline – which I’m sure exists so I might go check.
(I have a habit of inventing really cool stuff, only to find a minute later that is was already invented long ago.)
So here I am — on time with this issue and holding myself accountable to you.
I’m curious what conversations about?accountability?sound like for you, and what varied associations your people have with that word.
From what I've seen in the coaching room, "accountability" and the conversations around it are rare.
A Definition…
"Leadership is... using accountability as a fundamental structure to support learning."
An Idea…
Accountability is about relationships (not tasks)
Hard Conversations
A quick online search of?Accountability?surfaces a couple of themes. Many leadership voices, it seems, tie accountability to…
- Managing low performance
- Managing behaviours that detract from goals
- Having ‘difficult’ conversations
And?accountability?is associated with micro-managing people. I guess that’s because the way accountability often shows up, unfortunately, is when someone senior?holds you accountable?and?demands answers.
So it’s unsurprising that the ‘A’ word generates the energy of drag and weight.
Accountability is Empowering
As an executive coach, I hold the perspective of being a First Follower of my client. I support my clients in creating the future they want for their world…
?? – I hold?their?agenda,
?? – I hold?them?to their agenda (when we design that in)
To be accountable is to give an account of your action and your learning, in a conversation free from judgement.
The Sound of Accountability
What does accountability sound like in a coach-like space? It sounds like genuine curiosity for the person’s experience and, importantly, their learning.
???– What worked well?
???– What didn’t work as expected?
???– What was challenging for you here?
???– What about that was challenging?
???– What would you do differently next time?
…or some other version of?GDD?(Good, Difficult, Different).
To hold accountability is to support learning
As a coach, I don’t get to see my clients perform each and every day. As a leader, you don’t have constant eyes on all your people. To hold space for accountability is to put the focus on learning and growth through reflection. To hold accountability is to invite the culture of accounting for your own learning and sharing it.
To make a commitment is to invoke accountability
As a leader, you have an outsized impact on the culture of accountability. So, as with all things?leadership, when it comes to making change, the first place to look is in the mirror.
Accountability is about honesty in conversation
When you support someone in the accountability they hold for themselves your job is to help them discover their own learning. In a coach-like context that means…
? – No telling/fixing/advising
? – No judgement/blame/making them wrong
? – Inviting them to explore what is most challenging/difficult
So ultimately accountability is less about tasks and more about relationships.
An Experiment…
Given that you cannot not be a role model, create your own language around accountability for your commitments. Meetings are a good place to surface this.
What if accountability has different dimensions…
?? – WHAT will you do
?? – BY WHEN will you do it
?? – FOR WHO is it being done
?? – HOW THEY WILL KNOW when it has been done
?? – HOW YOU ENSURE QUALITY of the work
?? – how will you CLOSE THE LOOP in the event of deviation from this
An invitation to explore…
?? TEDxYouth:?Hold Yourself Accountable And Never Be Held Back?(7:26)
?? TEDxYouth:?What if we made no excuses??(5:40)
Leadership needn't be lonely!
Lead when ready!
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