CHAPTER 7
How to Hold Others Accountable for Being Leaders

I was speaking with the head of the human resources (HR) department at an investment firm that was a big fan of The Leadership Contract. Over several years, all leaders at the firm had experienced our training programs. The senior executive team spent considerable time learning the concepts themselves and ensuring they were effective role models for the rest of the organization. During our conversation, I asked this head of HR about some of the most tangible outcomes. She shared that leaders at all levels were stepping up in more significant ways. They were demonstrating more ownership for their roles. They were taking the initiative to work across the company on priorities with peers and colleagues. Then I asked her what she felt was the most significant impact. She immediately responded, “Our leaders are doing a much better job of holding other leaders accountable for being leaders.”

She couldn’t have had a better answer. As a leader, you are expected to hold others accountable for their performance. Many leaders struggle with this. Now you may think it’s just junior leaders with little experience who struggle. Well, it’s not—some CEOs struggle as well. Studies show that close to 20 percent of CEOs cite holding others accountable as their biggest weakness and another 15 percent struggle with dealing with an underperformer.1

As a leader, you need to address these issues with those you lead. As we discussed earlier in the book, you may find many are accountable and committed to the technical parts of their roles. However, they may be less committed to being accountable leaders. This is where you must apply your focus. The real end state you want to achieve is one where individuals step up and are fully committed to being accountable leaders. No opting out. No coasting. No flying under the radar. You need to set the expectation for your direct reports to own it, step up, and demonstrate real accountability every day. If you succeed, you will elevate your ability to lead to the right level. You will also eliminate the inordinate amount of time you spend dealing with accountability issues on your teams. You will also create a ripple effect of accountability across your organization.

This chapter will provide you with the strategies you need. We will explore how you can use the four terms of the leadership contract to guide your efforts to hold others accountable to be leaders (see Figure 7.1 below).

The figure shows four strategies to hold others accountable. These terms are as follows: 1. Leadership is a decision. 2. Leadership is an obligation. 3. Leadership is hard work. 4. Leadership is a community.

Figure 7.1 The Four Strategies to Hold Others Accountable

Make Leadership Accountability a Priority in How You Lead

Do you know with certainty which of your direct reports are truly accountable and which are mediocre? When I ask leaders this question, many have a response, but it is often based on a gut reaction rather than analysis.

The first step to holding others accountable for being leaders is knowing where they stand. Taking stock of your direct reports from a leadership accountability perspective can be incredibly valuable. We will do this by completing a quick assessment based on the four terms of the leadership contract.

To start, I’d like you to identify a direct report and think about how they are showing up currently as a leader. Now read each of the 20 statements in Figure 7.2 and check off whether the statement is strong or weak for the individual.

The figure shows 20 statements for assessing leadership accountability.

Figure 7.2 Assessing Leadership Accountability

Understanding Your Assessment of Your Direct Report

What insights did you gain from your quick assessment of your direct report? Let’s have a closer look. First, if you found that you predominately checked off the 20 statements as strengths, then you can conclude you have a direct report who is an accountable leader. This is great. You must keep nurturing the person’s development and ensure they act as a role model for others on your team. The more leaders you have who set the tone of accountability, the more others will step up. Remember, accountability breeds accountability.

Second, if you found you had direct reports who had an equal amount of strengths and weaknesses, then you need to focus your attention on helping them be stronger. The strategies in the rest of this chapter will help you do just that. You may also want to review The Leadership Contract Field Guide. It contains 75 valuable activities that can help your leaders become stronger and more accountable.

Finally, if you have a direct report who is weak in most areas, this person needs your immediate attention. You will need to have a meaningful conversation with that individual to share your insights. Learn how they see themselves and determine what might be getting in the way. You can ask the person to do a self-assessment on the 20 statements. See what that reveals. Perhaps you haven’t been clear on your leadership expectations. Perhaps the person is committed to the technical parts of the role but hasn’t spent time thinking about being a truly accountable leader. Alternatively, the person may have good intentions to be accountable, but is struggling to create value and have impact. No matter what the issue is, an open and transparent conversation is an excellent place to start.

Do You Have a Mediocre Leader on Your Hands?

If you rate a direct report as having many weak areas, you may also need to ask yourself whether they are a mediocre leader. Go a little deeper in your analysis by looking at the top five characteristics of mediocre leaders that we explored earlier in the book. The questions below will be helpful:

  1. Blame others. Do you see this leader regularly point the finger at someone else? Do they struggle to accept personal responsibility when things go wrong?
  2. Selfish and self-serving. Does this leader focus only on their own priorities? Do they not care about other colleagues?
  3. Uncivil and mean. Does this leader regularly and routinely mistreat, disrespect, and demean others? Is the individual known to bully others?
  4. Inept and incompetent. Does the person not seem right for a leadership role?
  5. Lack of initiative. Does this person rarely appear as a self-starter? Do you need to provide direction on every priority?

If you find yourself saying yes to any of these questions, then chances are you have a mediocre leader on your hands. You will need to act. Begin by having a direct and open conversation. Gauge how the individual reacts to your feedback: Do they respond positively? Do they accept your feedback? Or do they react with defensiveness and anger? You may also need to reevaluate whether this individual is in the right role. Maybe they need to be moved into a more technically oriented position. Perhaps there is a culture fit issue. Regardless of what is going on, it would help if you took action to help this individual. If you don’t, you will inadvertently send a message that you are a leader who tolerates mediocrity. You wouldn’t want to do that, would you?

Define Your Leadership Expectations

One of the most important obligations you have as a leader is to set clear leadership expectations for your direct reports. Surprisingly, few leaders do this. I believe it’s the most significant missed opportunity for you to drive stronger leadership accountability among your direct reports. You see, without clear leadership expectations, you do not have clarity nor the foundation to hold others accountable to be leaders. By not making your expectations clear, you also leave it to others to decide what is important. Don’t make this a guessing game: Be clear with your leadership expectations. If you recall the findings from my global research on leadership accountability, only 49 percent of companies surveyed claim to have set clear leadership expectations.

Take a few minutes now to start thinking about the leadership expectations that you have for your leaders. Here are some ideas to get you started:

  1. If your organization has already created a set of leadership expectations for all leaders, make sure you use these as your inspiration with your own team. If your organization hasn’t set clear leadership expectations, then use the remaining steps below.
  2. Reflect on your current business context and strategy. What does that tell you about how your leaders will need to step up and be truly accountable?
  3. Identify a set of five to seven critical behaviors that they will need to demonstrate consistently to drive the success of your team.
  4. If your organization has a leadership model or framework, make sure you use that as your inspiration.
  5. Articulate your expectations in simple and clear language.
  6. Test out your ideas with a few of your leaders to get their feedback and ensure your expectations are clear.
  7. Communicate and reinforce them on a regular basis.
  8. Communicate your leadership expectations frequently.
  9. Acknowledge when leaders are stepping up to your leadership expectations.

Once you have identified the leadership expectations for your team, you should see a greater sense of clarity from your leaders. You will also see a more aligned and consistent approach to how your team members lead. I certainly learned this a few years back. I was leading a senior team driving a significant transformation in our business. My team and I were having a two-day offsite. Before this meeting, I sent an email to stimulate their thinking. In it I told them how excited I was about the journey we would be taking together. I also expressed that my expectations of them were changing. I reinforced how important accountability was to me, how I wanted to create a team where we had each other’s backs. I expressed the need for us to practice what we preached to our clients. I also reinforced that our leadership culture would begin with us, so we had to set the right tone for the rest of our team. I wanted our collective leadership experience to be one of the best career experiences they would ever have. I also told them we would have some challenging work ahead—changes in talent, changes in how we approached our business, and so on.

A few of my team members immediately responded to my email saying they appreciated the clarity. They also admitted to feeling a little scared about where the bar was being set. I was, too. The challenge was enormous. These ideas inspired the conversation during our two-day meeting. They added their perspectives, and we developed an aligned set of leadership expectations for ourselves and our team.

  1. United front. We wanted to be seen as a unified team to our clients and our internal stakeholders.
  2. Above the belt and in the ring. When conflict came up, we wanted to be direct with one another, rather than gossiping, and have transparent conversations.
  3. Be the leader. We wanted to set the expectation that everyone was expected to lead, and that there were going to be no passengers or bystanders.
  4. Accountability for results. We expected an unrelenting focus on results and would support one another to achieving them.
  5. Bring a sense of urgency. We would be responsive and take the initiative in everything we did.
  6. Win as a team. We defined success as our collective success, and it was everyone’s responsibility to ensure everyone was winning.

We communicated these expectations to our entire team. They became a foundation for how we behaved and how we led.

You can take this one step further by using your leadership expectations to create your own leadership contract for everyone to sign, including yourself. In my book The Leadership Contract, I provide a sample leadership contract for the reader to sign. That sample leadership contract is tied specifically to each of the four terms. So if this idea appeals to you, you may want to check it out.

In the end, there is power in setting clear leadership expectations. It’s an essential step to building accountable leaders. However, once you have implemented this step, you must reinforce the expectations regularly. This is what we will explore next.

Reinforce Leadership Expectations Through Regular Check-Ins

I worked with an energy company a while back. Their chief human resources officer said that the board chair of the company was a big proponent of leadership accountability. He often said that to drive and sustain accountability, a leader must apply constant warm intensity. By constant, he meant that as a leader you need to be deliberate and always setting the expectation of accountability. By warm, he indicated that people should sweat a little and feel the heat of being held accountable. If they don’t, then you aren’t challenging them enough. However, if you are too forceful and apply too much heat, they may not respond adequately. Finally, intensity means that you need to be focused and bring an energy that communicates the importance of the leadership expectations you set.

How do you react to these three words: constant, warm, intensity?

Once you have set your leadership expectations, you need to embed them in how you and others lead. Many leaders set expectations, but don’t do enough follow-up. Over time, clarity dissipates and accountability wanes. Old leadership behaviors resurface, making change difficult. About 20 years ago, I had an interesting insight into how this can happen. My wife and I were growing our family and decided to buy a larger home. To save a bit of money, we moved our kitchen appliances from our old house to our new home. There was just one problem. The layout in our old kitchen meant that our refrigerator door opened from the left-hand side. In the new home, the refrigerator door needed to open from the right side.

No worries, I thought. I popped open a few plastic covers and removed some bolts and pins. In about 20 minutes, I got the door handle moved from the left to the right side of the refrigerator. Easy, right? Not so. For weeks afterward, I approached the refrigerator and instinctively reached for the handle on the left side of the door. This happened again and again. I would be looking at the door handle on the right side of the refrigerator, but my arm and hand would be reaching to the left side. Eventually, we all adapted to the new configuration, but it was surprising how long it took me.

Now, you might be asking what an old refrigerator has to do with being an accountable leader? Well, any change requires us to discontinue old behaviors and replace them with new ones needed for success. All of us have muscle memory for aspects of our roles—habits that have served us well, or at least not gotten us into trouble. We cannot evolve and grow if we don’t change. Change also requires us to understand that there may be a new set of leadership expectations we need to embrace. Therefore, as a leader, you need to be unrelenting in holding those you lead accountable for being leaders. If you don’t, their muscle memory will have them reverting to old patterns of behavior.

A useful way to sustain momentum is by having regular check-ins or conversations, say two or three times per year. Use these discussions to provide an open forum to have your direct reports discuss their own leadership. These check-ins are not intended to replace regular performance or coaching conversations, but rather to ensure you have time set aside throughout the year to focus on discussing leadership accountability. Use the check-ins to reinforce what is working well and provide feedback on areas that can be stronger.

Here are some questions you can explore in your check-in conversations. Send them out to your direct reports before you meet, and then review the responses together.

  • In what specific ways did you step up to our leadership expectations?
  • What were some of the critical leadership decisions that you made?
  • How did you increase the value you created for the organization?
  • What hard work did you tackle? What was the impact?
  • What hard work did you avoid? Why? What got in your way?
  • How did you strengthen the sense of community among leaders on our team or across our organization?
  • Looking ahead to the next few months, how will you continue to turn the four terms of our leadership contract into expectations?

Clarify Leadership Expectations at Critical Leadership Turning Points

In The Leadership Contract, I wrote a lot about what I called leadership turning points. These are moments when an individual assumes a new leadership role that brings a new set of expectations and a higher degree of responsibility, scrutiny, and pressure. In my team’s work with thousands of leaders over the years, we have defined four critical leadership turning points. At each one, you must sit down with your direct report to discuss what your expectations will be going forward. It’s a great habit to establish, and an even better way to embed your leadership expectations with those you lead. It’s also crucial because, as we already discussed in Chapter 2 of this book, many leaders struggle and even fail to integrate into new leadership roles. Don’t let this happen to you and your leaders. Let’s quickly explore the four critical leadership turning points:

  • Individual Contributor/Emerging Leader. The first turning point occurs when you tap on someone’s shoulder and tell the person you see leadership potential. I’m sure this probably happened to you at some point in your career. It’s quite the moment.
  • Front-Line Leader. The second critical turning point occurs when an individual takes on his or her first supervisory or front-line management role. It represents a significant shift from focusing on one’s performance as a measure of success to being measured on the performance of others. Some front-line leaders are stepping into a leadership role on a team where they used to be members. Learning to lead former colleagues isn’t easy. You can play a crucial role in supporting your direct report through this experience.
  • Mid-Level or Senior Leader. The third critical leadership turning point is when one assumes a mid-level or senior management role. The demands of leadership change considerably, and how one sees oneself must change. At this level, the leader is most likely managing other leaders. The individual is also thrust into a world of working with other leaders from other departments and functions from across your organization. The new leader needs to have a strong reputation because influence is vital at this level.
  • Executive Leader. The final critical turning point of leadership occurs when one assumes an executive role. Expectations are even higher. Leaders are expected to not only understand their part of the business, but also be ambassadors for the whole organization.

Each turning point represents a significant shift in leadership expectations. Not only does the role change, but the leader must also change at a personal level by developing a new mindset aligned with the new leadership expectations. You must help your leaders understand these expectations, as well as how they need to step up and demonstrate strong accountability. You can’t just be putting someone into a role, hoping for the best. No matter how enthusiastic the individual may be, it’s better to pause and have an explicit conversation about the changing demands and expectations of the role.

Here are a set of questions you can use when a direct report takes on a new leadership role. Begin by explaining your leadership expectations, then engage in a discussion that addresses these questions:

  1. What does strong leadership accountability look like when you are entirely successful in your role?
  2. What are the specific expectations, demands, and pressures that you believe you will face in your new role?
  3. What excites you about this role? What concerns you?
  4. What is the deliberate leadership decision you need to make to be successful in this role?
  5. How do you need to think about your leadership obligations?
  6. What is the specific hard work that you know you need to tackle to be successful in your role?
  7. What critical relationships with peers and colleagues will you need to rely on to help you be a more accountable leader?

The more you can support your direct reports at leadership turning points, the more successful you’ll be in helping them continue to step up and be accountable.

Increase the Resilience and Resolve of Your Direct Reports

Once you lead others, you realize that part of your role is helping them build their own personal resilience and resolve as leaders. As you know from your personal experience, leadership is hard work. The position is demanding, and many leaders don’t fully appreciate this until they are in the role. You can help your leaders become more self-aware about how they respond to adversity, scrutiny, and the pressure of a leadership role.

I remember one direct report I led years ago who was relatively new in a leadership role. He was a great performer, but whenever something would go wrong, he would become quite unsettled. One day, we had an issue crop up on a project he was overseeing. His workstation was just outside my office. I had my door open, and I could sense him fidgeting and getting distracted. It was early in the morning, so a lot of our team wasn’t in the office yet. I peeked out of my office door and asked him to come in for a chat. As soon as we sat down, he started to vent. He was frustrated with how things had quickly gotten out of control, creating an issue with the project. He continued to vent. I listened.

When he paused, I asked him, “Are you planning on letting this ruin your entire day?” He was surprised by my question. We discussed that stuff happens, but as leaders, we must be able to respond, reframe, and move on. Given how he was reacting, he was on the path to letting this problem interfere with his entire day as well as his judgment. Had he not paused, he would not have been at his best to deal with any other issues that came his way.

We discussed his game plan to fix the problem. He thanked me for the conversation, and his mood and tone changed immediately.

It’s helpful to understand the resilience and resolve of your leaders. Here are some things you can look out for, so you can better help them:

  • Do they see the hard work in their leadership role as an opportunity to grow?
  • Do they remain optimistic in the face of adversity?
  • How do they respond to criticism and scrutiny?
  • How do they self-regulate their emotions and reactions to stressful events?
  • Are they able to get back on track after a setback or disappointment?
  • Do they manage their personal energy to maintain their performance?
  • Do you observe them asking for help and drawing on the support of others?

As you review the seven questions above and think about your direct reports, what insights jump out at you? Where do you need to focus your attention?

If you can help your direct reports strengthen their resilience and resolve, you will provide tremendous value to them both professionally and personally.

We need to become more transparent and open in discussing the hard work of leadership. It’s one of the most valuable things that happens in our leadership contract programs. Leaders open up about their struggles and provide support to one another. An essential part is of all of this is being able to be vulnerable with others. Dr. Brené Brown has eloquently written about this in her books.2 She describes vulnerability as the uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure that we feel when we open up and talk about something outside of our comfort zone.

If you let your direct reports know you are available to lend some support and help them reframe a situation, particularly when they are having a rough day, you will be valued and admired. If you are the leader people know they can be vulnerable in front of and feel safe with, you will have a tremendous impact on their lives. Be that kind of leader!

Help Your Leaders Succeed Within the Broader Organization

As organizations continue to drive more collaboration and innovation across their enterprises, all leaders will need to know how to work across departments and divisions. Working in this way may be new to many leaders. You can help them navigate these uncharted waters by positioning them strongly and helping them build relationships with peers and colleagues. Here are some ideas to consider:

  • Help build the credibility and positive reputations of your leaders. When everyone on your team has strong personal credibility and is viewed in a positive light, that’s a winning formula. Your job becomes much more manageable because not everything hinges on you. Your team’s reputation and positive word-of-mouth can create the ideal conditions for getting important work done across a company. If your team members do not have that credibility, they run the risk of being marginalized, ignored, or bypassed for opportunities. If their credibility is weak, others will avoid them, or do work-arounds to not engage them on important projects. Ensure that you are doing your best to build your leaders’ reputations.
  • Connect your leaders to key stakeholders and influencers. Do you spend time introducing your leaders to others in the organization? Many times, leaders can get stuck in their silos and don’t reach out to build relationships. You can leverage your internal network to help them establish relationships. This will lead to better collaboration and innovation and better outcomes for your organization as a whole.
  • Showcase the talent and impact of your leaders. One of the best things that leaders I’ve worked with have done for me is to tell others about my work and accomplishments. That’s why I routinely do this with my direct reports. Often, the impact that a leader has may go unnoticed, especially among senior leaders. That’s why it’s important for you to routinely showcase your team members and communicate their accomplishments to others. To what extent do you do this for the leaders you lead?

Final Thoughts

In this chapter, we focused on what you can do to better hold others accountable for being leaders. There is a real opportunity for you to be the leader in your organization who helps others succeed. The side benefit is that you will also develop a reputation as a builder of truly accountable leaders. Top talent will seek you out and ask to work for you, because they know they will become better with your support and leadership.

Gut Check for Leaders: How to Hold Others Accountable for Being Leaders

As you think about the ideas in this chapter, reflect on your answers to the following Gut Check for Leaders questions:

  1. To what extent do you make leadership accountability a priority in how you lead others?
  2. Have you invested time in defining and articulating clear leadership expectations of those you lead?
  3. In what ways can you work to increase the resilience and resolve of the people you lead?
  4. To what extent do you help your direct reports succeed across the broader organization?

Notes

  1. 1Shannon Howard, “Holding Employees Accountable: Where Most Leaders Fail,” The Predictive Index, March 21, 2019, https://www .predictiveindex.com/blog/holding-employees-accountable/.
  2. 2Brené Brown, Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead (Penguin Books, 2012).
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