And yet, so many leaders do this very poorly.

Some of the implications for lack of accountability include:

• Below average performance of the team and organization
• Resentment builds among team members
• Lack of accountability becomes a part of the culture and spreads
• Lose high performers who leave the company

Here is what you need to do to become better at holding others accountable:

1.  Make sure that you set the standard by following through with every commitment.  You set the tone.  Learn more here.

2.  Establish specific outcomes for every job.  Hold people accountable for the results they need to produce, not progress on their to do list.

3.  Make sure you are clear on the specific expectations of every team member.

4.  Communicate commitments made by each team member in writing after every team meeting.

5.  When people miss deadlines, contact them and ask for an update.  Discipline yourself to do this every time.  Don’t play favorites.  And, you don’t have to be a jerk about it.  Just ask.

6.  Encourage your team to hold one another accountable.

This is a good start.  If you do these things consistently, then you will build a culture of accountability.  In time, this culture will reinforce itself.  High performers will be drawn to your team.

High-performing leaders often fall into a “fixing” cycle.

When something goes wrong, they always come to you.  And sure enough, you are able to fix it – whatever “it” is.  Over time, this creates a toxic dependency. The more you fix, the less others have to. Your reliability effectively masks systemic issues, allowing broken processes and underperformance to persist because you are there to catch the falling glass.

The personal cost of this dynamic is significant. While you are busy firefighting and compensating for the gaps of others, you lose the bandwidth for the high-level strategic work your role actually requires.

By acting as the “fixer,” you are essentially teaching your colleagues that they don’t need to be fully accountable because you will always provide the rescue.  Your greatest strength has become a liability.

To reclaim your impact, your reliability must become strategic rather than reactive. Here are some ideas from a recent article in Harvard Business Review to help you make a fundamental shift in how you see your role:

• Surface the Gaps: Instead of quietly fixing a broken workflow, highlight the friction. Let the system feel the pressure of its own inefficiencies so that long-term solutions can be implemented.
• Clarify Decision Rights: Be explicit about who owns what. If a task isn’t yours, resist the urge to take it on simply because you can do it faster or better than the person responsible.
• Distribute Accountability: Leading effectively means ensuring that accountability lands where it belongs. Your goal isn’t to carry the load alone, but to ensure the team is structured to carry it collectively.

Stepping back from the role of “fixer” isn’t about withdrawing; it’s about leading with better judgment. By letting go of the need to be the constant hero, you create space for your team to grow and for your organization to become more resilient. True leadership isn’t about being the most reliable person in the room – it’s about building a system where reliability is shared.

*Ideas for this blog taken from: Velasquez, L.  “When Being the Most Reliable Leader Becomes a Liability,” Harvard Business Review online, February 27, 2026.

The pace of change in our world seems to increase exponentially on a regular basis.  This can frustrate a lot of people when they begin a Strategy effort.  “What’s the point,” they may say, “the future is so unpredictable!”

While this can be true, a solid Strategy will:

• Clarify your Mission and the difference you want to make
• Set your Ideal Vision for the future
• Establish Three-Five Strategic Goals
• Identify relevant SWOTs: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats that are relevant to implementing your Strategic Goals

In a Strategy Refresh, you can briefly revisit each of these items.

• Your Mission probably has not changed. If not, reaffirm and Onward!
• Maybe you want to update your Vision. If so, great.  This does not have to be a long process.
• Are your Strategic Goals still relevant? Most of them probably are.  If you need to change them for any reason, go for it.  It is more likely that you may want to tweak them based on what you have learned in the past year.
• It is likely that some of your SWOTs have changed – either due to internal changes (i.e., staffing, finances) or external changes. Make sure that you identify these changes and feed them into your implementation process.

A strategy refresh is a healthy standard operating procedure to help make sure that you are still on the right path to your vision and mission.  It will help assure that you maximize your Mission Impact.

First, I will admit that I am a Recovering Multi-Tasker.  I know that I should close all of my apps, notifications, and windows to focus on only one thing at a time, but I backslide.  If you want to learn how and why to kick the multi-tasking habit, check out this blog.

The next step to greater productivity is to prioritize your weekly and daily To Do Lists.  If you have never seen Steven Covey’s Big Rocks video, check it out here.

If you have stopped trying to multi-task and you already prioritize your To Do List, then you are ready for the next level of productivity breakthrough: Timeboxing.  Below are some ideas about how to implement this practice, taken from a recent Harvard Business Review article.  If you want more, there is a book by Marc Zao-Sanders: Timeboxing: The Power of Doing One Thing at a Time.

*Take your Prioritized To Do List and transfer it to your Calendar.

*Block the amount of time you think you need for each Task.  This is a Timebox.

*Focus ONLY on that Task during that time period.  When the time is up, move to the next Task.

*Review and Adjust.  If you did not complete the Task, either add another Timebox or reprioritize.

*Leave some unscheduled time on your calendar to make yourself available for meetings that might arise.  If no meetings come up, great – you can add a Timebox for a Task you previously did not have time for.

*No Encroachment!  Don’t let people steal your Task Timebox for a meeting that they think is important.  Worst case – trade your Task Timebox for some unscheduled time so you can attend a meeting that is truly an emergency.

*No Time? If you are one of those people who are booked in meetings all day long, with no time for Task Timeboxes then you need to stop that.  You will never get anything done.  Check out this blog to learn more.

Give it a try!  Timeboxing promises increased focus, improved productivity, and reduced procrastination.  Maybe you can even make more free time for yourself.

*Ideas for this blog taken from: Zao-Sanders, M.  “How Timeboxing Works and Why It Will Make You More Productive,” Harvard Business Review online, December 12, 2018.

One of the biggest mistakes I see in implementation is a lack of Accountability.

Accountability is one of the five pillars of teamwork excellence, according to Patrick Lencioni – in his book, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team – and I could not agree more.

Accountability begins with you – the leader.

Management Guru Peter Drucker once said: “The most important person you manage is yourself.”

Can your team trust you to follow through on your promises?  Do you get everything done by when you say you will?  Do you bring your “A” game to every project.  Do you make things right when you make a mistake?  Pittsburgh Steelers Football Coach, Mike Tomlin, is fond of saying “The standard is the standard.”  What standard are you setting?

By the way, even if you are not “the boss,” you can still influence the performance of your team when you hold yourself accountable to high standards.

Once you are fulfilling high standards for yourself with respect to Accountability, then it is time to hold others accountable.  This does not mean that you need to be a jerk about it.  You are simply asking others to fall in line with the standard you have set.

After every team meeting, make sure that someone has taken notes that are distributed to the team.  The most important section of the notes are commitments that team members have agreed to, such as “Rob has agreed to provide an update on customer satisfaction statistics one day before our next meeting.”

If people do not fulfill their promises, you need to follow up with them – and this can be done privately: “Rob, you had promised that customer satisfaction report by yesterday, but I have not seen it.  Please provide an update.”

Leaders who let even little promises slide show that they are accepting a culture of mediocrity, instead of excellence.  In this example, talk with Rob about what is going on and provide some firm coaching.  Support him in making sure this does not happen again.

Set high standards for yourself and your team.  Whether you decide to quote Mike Tomlin or not, you can let them know – by your example – that “the standard is the standard.”

. . . they just ask the first thing that pops into their heads.

If you and your team want to make better decisions, then use a methodical process for problem-solving.

Following are some ideas on a systematic approach you can consider, based on a recent article from Harvard Business Review.  Note: It’s not a matter of asking lots of questions – it is asking the right questions at the right time.

*First, what are the facts – what do we know?  Why are you working on this project?  Is this a new opportunity you invented or a problem that has appeared?  Regardless, ask questions such as “Why are we faced with this situation?”  Consider using the Toyota technique of asking “Why” five times to probe more deeply.  Ask “How did this happen?  What are the causes of the problem?”

*Brainstorm creative possibilities.  Ask questions to get your team thinking more broadly, such as “How might we approach this in a unique way?”  “What if we . . . ?”  “What else might we do?”

*Planning questions.  Once a proposed solution becomes clear, then start asking “next step” questions such as “Are there other people we need to consult – such as stakeholders?  Do we have the resources we need?  Who is going to do what by when?  How do we hold one another accountable?”

*After Action Review questions.  Make sure to take the time to review your results after the project – whether you were wildly successful or a big failure.  Ask questions such as “What happened?  What worked?  What didn’t work?  What can we do differently to make things work better?”

Educate your team on these different kinds of questions and their sequencing.  Encourage them to add their own questions as you go through the process.  By using a more systematic approach, you will make much more of a Mission Impact.

*Ideas for this blog taken from: Chevallier, A, Dalsace, F, & Barsoux, J-L.  “The Art of Asking Smarter Questions,” Harvard Business Review, May – June, 2024.

Here is how your team can build trust and continue to improve your performance, based on a recent article in Harvard Business Review:

1.  Don’t Leave Collaboration to Chance.  Once you have a project identified, take time to consider what needs to be done and the talents required by the people who will work on those tasks.  Our EMBA team always had our list of Clifton StrengthsFinder talents handy when a new project came up.  We would look at the project, what was required, and then check our talent list to see who was best suited to work on it.

2.  Keep Colleagues in the Loop.  Don’t expect the manager to update everyone.  Set an expectation of transparency in which all team members go out of the way to make sure that others are updated regularly.  “Knowledge is power” and it needs to be shared.

3.  Share Credit!  When something goes well it is important for the team leader and all team members involved share credit with anyone and everyone involved.  This builds trust and creates a norm of reciprocity.  Recent research suggests that when we share credit for accomplishments we are more likable, without seeming less capable.

4.  Constructive Conflict.  High performing teams find a way to disagree in respectful ways.  The best way to discern the most effective path forward is to get a few ideas out and then look at the pros and cons of each.  We need to be able to critique each idea – in a respectful way – as we choose the best option.  This needs to be set as a team norm.

Employees who trust their organizations show higher engagement, creativity, and productivity.  Those who do not are prone to burnout and quitting.  Developing trust on your team needs to be a high priority for increased performance and enhanced Mission Impact.

*Ideas for this blog taken from: Friedman, R.  “How High Performing Teams Build Trust,” Harvard Business Review, online, January 10, 2024.

Most of us know this.  Yet, most leaders end up “adding” more things to do for their organizations, rather than getting rid of things.  Research shows we are “wired” this way.  When humans are asked to think of ways to improve things, we fall into “addition bias.”

We can be much more effective if can focus some of our time on a “stop doing” list.  A recent article in Harvard Business Review provides excellent ideas on how to proceed.  One of the authors’ primary ideas is to employ a Good Riddance Review:

1.  Ask colleagues and customers to identify unnecessary obstacles.  The Hawaii Pacific Health system launched GROSS: Get Rid of Stupid Stuff.  They asked nurses, docs, and assistants to nominate anything that was “poorly designed, unnecessary, or just plain stupid.”  They ended up saving thousands of hours in staff time by implementing suggestions.

2.  Calculate the burdens of performance measurement.  KISS: Keep It Super Simple.  Only measure the most important stuff.  I know one organization that cut its performance dashboard from 32 metrics to eight.

3.  Assess the burden imposed by meetings.  Cut meeting time by a third.  There should probably be fewer and shorter meetings in your organization.  And they definitely need to be better run – including agendas for every meeting (See here for more ideas.)

4.  Catalog email overload.  Or don’t catalog it – just get rid of as much of it as you can.  Many organizations have guidelines to limit email between 10PM – 6AM and on weekends.  Rethink all of the CCs.  Challenge people to limit the length of each email.

5.  Count how many people report to each leader.  You think you are being efficient by having more than six people report to each leader, but you are actually drowning them in meetings.  They don’t have the time to do their own work or manage people well.

This is just the beginning.  The article is chock full of additional ideas on how to get rid of the BS and I encourage you to check it out.

What do we do with the time we save?  How about having a more balanced life?  Or devoting some time to being really strategic (vs reactionary) in your planning?  Cut out the BS.  Save time, frustration, and make even more of a Mission Impact.

*Ideas for this blog taken from: Sutton, R. I. & Rao, H.  “Rid Your Organization of Obstacles That Infuriate Everyone,” Harvard Business Review, January – February 2024, pp. 100 – 107.

Others like to avoid conflict and want to quickly compromise – “Let’s just split the difference.”

Both of these approaches could lead to sub-optimal outcomes.  Often, a negotiation can lead to a real “win-win” for both parties, which is different and better than a compromise.

Let’s consider two scenarios.

Scenario #1:  Two boys each want the last piece of cake.  My Mom would always make one of us cut the last piece in half (which we did very meticulously) and then give the other brother the first choice.  That is a compromise and sometimes it is the best you can do.  But it is not a “win-win!”  I wanted the entire last piece!  But – we both won and lost the same.  That’s a fair compromise.

Scenario #2: Two boys both want the last orange left in the bowl.  Rather than immediately cutting it in half, the Mom asks the boys “why” they want the orange.  One boy says he wants to eat the fruit and the other wants to use the rind to make some tasty banana bread.  Now we have a “win-win” opportunity.  Mom peels the orange and gives each boy what he wants.

The difficulty, of course, is that – heading into a negotiation – you are unsure if the “win-win” is possible.  Here is what you can do, based on years of negotiations research:

1.  Go into every negotiation open-minded and looking for a possible “win-win” opportunity.

2.  Discern the interests of the other party.  Ask “why” they are interested in the item being negotiated.  As you probe further and explore options, you might ask “why not” if they protest.  And my favorite question: “Help me understand . . .”  Be sure to probe beyond an initial “position” they might lay out.  Research shows that the most successful negotiators gather twice the amount of information from their negotiating partner than unsuccessful ones.

3.  As you discern your negotiating partner’s interests, and consider your own, get creative!  Try to envision an agreement that you both would find positive.  Try to imagine what your partner’s “Victory Speech” might look like.  When they tell their friends or family the story of how this negotiation went down, imagine them happily explaining it all.  What can you give them as a part of the negotiation for them to feel this way?

Negotiating is a vital leadership skill.  To learn more, I recommend the book, Getting to Yes.  You can also check out these blogs on negotiation prep, ethical negotiations, and building your negotiation muscle.  Good luck developing this important skill.

What happened?

All too often it is because somewhere along the line, someone failed to do what they promised and no one called them on it.  They were not held accountable.

Lack of accountability is a huge problem in organizations.  In fact, Patrick Lencioni names this as one of The Five Dysfunctions of a Team in his great book by that title.

What can you do to master holding people accountable?  Check out these ideas from a recent Harvard Business Review article.

*Don’t Make a Request of Your Entire Team.  Often, a good idea surfaces during a team meeting and there is excitement!  “Yeah, let’s do that.”  Don’t assume that someone is going to take the initiative.  Ask a specific person to take the lead.

*Make Sure the Your Request is Very Specific.  Next, make sure that you are very clear about what you are asking the person to do.  “Thanks Rob, just so we are all clear, please do the following (specifics) by (date).”  And include a time of day if that is needed.  This sounds simple and basic but is all too often missed.

*Explain the Context.  Once again, don’t assume the person you are asking understands the background.  Maybe the boss is leaving on vacation soon and this is why you need the request fulfilled so quickly.  There are a whole host of reasons that could be helpful for your colleague to understand about the context of the request.

*Counter Vague Responses.  Sometimes you might here back “Sounds good,” “I’ll get right on it,” or “I’ll see what I can do.”  Do not accept these!  Say something like “Just to be clear, will you have completed what I requested by that date and time?”  If they hedge, then ask them for a specific date and time that will work for them and negotiate an agreement.  Don’t let the vagueness continue.

*Follow Up!  Keep track of what people have promised to do.  If they do not hit the deadline, then follow-up with them.  If you have a lot of deliverables to track, you may want to ask someone to assist you.

Few things can be more frustrating than having a strong plan that fails because someone did not follow through on a promise.  Use these tips to make sure your team members stay on track for success.

*Ideas for this blog taken from: Ringel, R.  “Mastering the Art of the Request,” Harvard Business Review online, August 4, 2023.