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.

This is the standard that I set for myself – and I remind myself of this every day.

This does not mean that I do a perfect job in every class – far from it.  I always have ideas on how I can do better.  But I go for it and give 100% effort every day.

What would it take for you to bring you’re “A Game” to work every day?

Here are some of the things I do:

• Prepare.  Every day brings a new challenge.  Make sure you have put the time into being ready for each of your key goals for the day.
• Focus.  It is easy to get distracted during the day.  Work to keep your focus on your key goals for the day.
• Prioritize.  Bringing your “A Game” does not mean that do everything perfectly.  You need to pick the top goals for the day to focus on.
• Rest.  We cannot be our best without getting proper rest – whatever that means for you.
• Health.  Taking care of our health is great for the long term, but also for today.  Make sure you have the energy you need to bring your “A Game.”
• Continuous Improvement. All of us can get better each day.  Continually evaluate improvements for the future.
• Make Your Own List. These are the things that I need to bring my “A Game” – what about you?

Are you bringing your “A Game” every day or are you sleepwalking through life; same ‘ol, same ‘ol?  Are you phoning it in?

We can never get a day back.  I suggest making the effort to bring your “A Game” every day.  Not only will you be more successful – the whole experience will be much more fulfilling.

I was not interested!  I didn’t need to “win” friends.  I was already good at “making” friends.  And the “winning friends” part made me suspicious that the “influencing people” part was about “how to manipulate” people.  Not interested.

Finally, enough people kept recommending it that I broke down and read it.  And I became a fan!  That was many years ago.  I have recommended the book and/or given it to many people over the years.  This little blog is my recommendation for you to read it as well!

The most important part of the book is Carnegie’s recommendation: “Become genuinely interested in other people.”

As you know, some people are “genuinely” interested in others – and some are not.  Some are way more interested in themselves.  I am guessing that since you are reading this, you are someone who IS genuinely interested in others – you care about them.  And if that is true, then this book will help you understand how to show people that you really care.

Here are just some of the nuggets from the book that may help you decide to read it:

• Remember names: A person’s name is, to that person, the sweetest and most important sound in any language.
• Be a good listener: Encourage others to talk about themselves.
• Show respect for opinions: Never say, “You’re wrong.”
• If you are wrong, admit it quickly and emphatically.
• Give honest and sincere appreciation
• Smile: It is a messenger of your goodwill.
• As a leader, praise the slightest improvement and praise every improvement.
• By controlling your ego and prioritizing the dignity of others, you naturally gain influence.

If you care about people, then using these behaviors will help people see it and feel it.

IMPORTANT: These are not tricks!  If you don’t care about people and use these behaviors, people will realize that you are full of it!

In a world that often rewards selfishness and in which many people don’t feel cared about, these are important behaviors to consider – if you really do care about others.  And, of course, if you don’t care, people will figure you out.  You cannot fake sincerity.

The research on trust is very clear.

Leaders who are trusted are much more effective.

Teams that trust one another are more effective.

And organizations in which high levels of trust exist among employees are more effective.

This all starts with you as a leader.

Can people count on you to be honest with them and to tell the truth – the whole truth, without any “spinning?”

Do you have the best interest of your team in mind at all times?

When you are faced with a dilemma, can people count on you to work it out as best you can?

Do you speak up when you know it is the right thing to do?  And how about – when you know it may not be in your best interest to do so?

These are not easy things in a world that often rewards selfishness.  But if you can answer “yes” to these questions, then you are on the path to becoming a genuine leader of integrity.

What kind of leader do you want to be?

Unfortunately, research shows that most change efforts fail.

While having a “sense of urgency” is widely regarded as important to a successful change effort, ironically – many efforts fail when a change is launched too soon.  It takes a wise leader to balance the tension between “urgency” and “being ready.”

Following is some guidance to help you with balancing that tension, with ideas taken from a recent Harvard Business Review article.

Many change efforts fail due to preventable patterns that drain an initiative’s energy at the point of launch. These include:

• A “Moral Authority Gap”: A lack of trusted, values-based leadership that fails to convert simple compliance into true conviction.
• Underestimating the Status Quo: Grossly miscalculating the resilience of existing routines and structural inertia.
• Perverse Incentives: Failing to align middle management’s incentives with the new priorities, leaving them tied to old habits.
• The Over-Hasty Launch: Rushing into execution without a detailed plan, often mistaking recklessness for healthy urgency.

Here are some strategies to increase your chances of success:

1. Perform the “Awful Triage”: Change capacity is a finite resource. You must be prepared to say “no” to secondary projects to ensure your mission-critical initiatives have the focus they need to succeed.
2. Conduct a “Do-Nothing” Analysis: Bring stakeholders together and ask: “What happens if we do nothing?”. Surfacing the real costs of inaction builds the urgency and alignment needed for a successful launch.
3. Build a Guiding Coalition Early: Assemble a diverse group of influential stakeholders—from senior experts to respected frontline managers—who can scale influence and help refine the roadmap.
4. Plan for Early Wins: Create concrete, visible milestones that can be achieved within the first 30 to 90 days. These “proof points” help bridge the “span of uncertainty” where employees are watching for evidence that the change actually works.

Nothing will derail your leadership momentum more than a “false start” when it comes to leading change.  It is nearly impossible to recover from it.  Use these ideas to lead your team to sustained Mission Impact.

*Ideas for this blog taken from: Clark, T. R.  “How to Avoid a False Start When You Are Leading a Big Change,” Harvard Business Review online, February 10, 2026.

Maybe not.

We often view team harmony as the ultimate goal. We celebrate a lack of ego and a culture of collaboration.

Yet many professional groups fall into a subtle but dangerous trap: they mistake collegiality for alignment. When respect and trust are replaced by a mere avoidance of conflict, the result isn’t a better team—it’s delayed decisions, superficial consensus, and a lack of accountability.

Mistaking politeness for progress is more than a cultural quirk; it is a competitive crisis hiding in plain sight. Research recently reported in Harvard Business Review suggests that governance failures and a lack of probing questions can cause organizations to underperform their sectors by as much as 35% in the following year.

To determine if your team is tipping too far into comfort, watch for these five red flags:

• Avoidance of Accountability: Sensitive topics are consistently pushed to the end of meetings or deferred entirely to avoid discomfort.
• Superficial Consensus: The group moves quickly to agreement without exploring alternatives or risks, often resulting in unspoken concerns.
• Social Comfort Over Candor: Tension is defused with jokes or side-stepped to preserve “good feelings,” even when the actual path forward remains unclear.
• Unequal Voice Participation: Newer or quieter members hold back out of deference, depriving the group of fresh perspectives and relevant expertise.
• Shadow Governance: Key concerns are raised in private “offline” conversations with individuals rather than being debated by the full group.

 High-performing groups don’t just “get along”; they challenge each other’s assumptions with intellectual curiosity. You can shift your team’s dynamic with a few intentional structural changes:

1. Tackle the Tough Stuff First: Reserve the first 20 minutes of your meeting for the most uncomfortable topic when cognitive energy is highest.
2. Assign a “Chief Skeptic”: Rotate a role at each meeting for someone tasked specifically with finding flaws and proposing alternatives. Charge them with “The three potential downsides of this approach are . . . ”
3. Mandatory Round-Robin Input: Before a major decision, require every member to contribute a distinct concern or alternative approach instead of just agreeing with previous points.
4. The “Raise It in the Room” Norm: Require members to disclose any meaningful side conversations they’ve had about team matters since the last meeting.

True leadership requires distinguishing between genuine alignment and the dangerous comfort of surface-level agreement. When collegiality coexists with candor, it becomes a powerful driver of sharper decisions and stronger performance.

*Ideas for this blog taken from: Cozma, I. & Rodighiero, E.  “Is Your Board Too Collegial,” Harvard Business Review online, September 17, 2025.

You may be telling yourself that this is just a short-term issue and that things will work out.

But maybe not.

According to research from Deloitte, nearly 70% of senior executives are seriously considering leaving their positions for the sake of their well-being. In this high-pressure environment, the traditional advice of “building resilience” often falls short. When chronic adversity is the norm, exhausted professionals don’t need stronger armor—they need to make a change.

The change that many executives are taking on is a complete redesign of their jobs.

Why is this necessary?  Top jobs often become unsustainable because of the incremental addition of “one more responsibility” and the desire by many top leaders to “flatten” the organization by adding more and more direct reports to a position.  The people who get “flattened” are the ones who end up with too many direct reports than they can handle – while also doing their own job.

If you want to redesign your job, here are some steps to follow, based on a recent article in Harvard Business Review.

1. Re-examine the Role’s Core Requirements

Modern leadership roles often cling to outdated norms of constant availability and “heroic individualism”. Step back and ask: What is the most important responsibility in this role?  List out the top three requirements of the job.

2. Conduct an Internal Inventory

Once you clarify what the role truly needs, you must understand what you require to thrive. Be honest about what energizes you and what drains you consistently. Identify your “superpower space”—the work where you provide your highest value and best use. Focus your redesigned job on the core requirements where you provide the most value.

3. Implement Your Redesign

The final step is translating these insights into a specific action plan. This will require intentional shifts in a few key areas. Maybe you need to manage differently.  Maybe you need to renegotiate  the expectations that your boss has for you.

At the end of the day, this is a prioritization exercise: prioritization of your most important work and prioritization of your life.  Keep in mind, you are not only making this job more sustainable for yourself, but also for the next person who takes on this position.

*Ideas for this blog taken from: Eikenberg, S. & Martignetti, T.  “What To Do When Your Senior Role Feels Totally Unsustainable,” Harvard Business Review online, January 21, 2026.

In fact, many are so driven to succeed that they cannot fathom the idea of having a single failure.

In his book, Originals, Adam Grant says:

“When achievement motivation goes sky-high, it can crowd out originality: The more you value achievement, the more you come to dread failure.”

It’s not that you should love failure.  No one “loves” to fail.

The question becomes, do you follow your passion and set a high goal – knowing that the chances of failing are significant?  Or do you sell out what you want in your heart, to be “successful” at accomplishing a much smaller goal?

The difficulty is that many people focus on goal attainment versus actual results.  If you want continuing improvement in results – over time – then set big goals, try innovative ideas, and be true to your passion.  You will absolutely fail many times.  But over time, your results will be better and you know will know in your heart that you followed your passion.

Nelson Mandela once said: “Your playing small does not serve the world.”

Play Big!  And if you fall short, get up the next day and play big again.  That will serve the world and your passion.

This is easier said than done.  According to a recent article in Harvard Business Review, managing spirits during anxious times requires more than a “keep calm and carry on” poster; it requires intentional, human-centric action.

The quickest way to lose a team’s trust is to pretend everything is fine when it clearly isn’t. Anxiety thrives in silence and ambiguity. As a leader, your first task is to name the reality.

Validating your team’s concerns doesn’t make them “weaker”—it creates a foundation of psychological safety that allows them to actually focus on their work instead of their worries.

Anxiety often stems from a lack of agency. To counter this, help your team zoom in on what they can influence.

• Focus on Purpose and Values: Reinforce the things that are not changing. Remind people that they are a part of something important. Role model the values and what you stand for.
• Clarify Short-Term Goals: When the long-term feels murky, break projects down into “wins” for the next 48 hours.
• Establish Routine: Predictability is the antidote to chaos. Maintain your 1-on-1s and team huddles, even if there isn’t a major “update.”
• Set Boundaries: In anxious times, the line between “working from home” and “living at work” can blur.  Encourage your staff to truly disconnect.

Model vulnerability, not perfection.  You don’t need to be a stoic statue. In fact, if you’re feeling the pressure, say so. When a leader admits, “I’m finding this week a bit challenging too,” it gives the rest of the team permission to be human. This isn’t about dumping your stress on them; it’s about modeling how a professional navigates stress with resilience.

Finally, remember that empathy and productivity are not at odds. Being a “supportive” leader doesn’t mean lowering standards; it means providing the emotional resources your team needs to meet those standards. By prioritizing connection and clarity, you don’t just help your team survive an anxious season – you build a culture that can weather any future storm.

*Ideas for this blog taken from: Gulati, R. “How to Keep Your Team’s Spirits Up in Anxious Times,” Harvard Business Review online, September 8, 2025.