Struggling as a Leader? 6 Reasons Why Lacking Accountability Can Hurt Your Career.

We have all heard the buzz word “accountability”. It is everywhere and almost every book and every course on leadership states that accountability is an important, if not the most important leadership skill.

Being accountable, is effectively the willingness to accept responsibility — at all costs. And, while the idea of accountability sounds valiant and smart, the truth is that taking accountability is hard.

In general, humans don’t want to look bad or disappoint others. When we are tasked with taking accountability we are being asked to admit that we had a hand in doing something that did not work out the way we and/or others had hoped. We are being asked to own up to a failure or a misstep. In order to do this we must risk, even embrace looking bad or disappointing others.

For leaders, accepting that they are (and must be) accountable for everything that happens on and with their team can feel like a difficult (horse) pill to swallow.

It is indeed a tall ask to expect someone to show accountability for what is under their purview. But after all, to those who much is given, much is expected. Being entrusted to lead is the highest compliment we can get for our years of service, wisdom, or expertise. It comes with many privileges and with those privileges we have duties.

I like to think of accountability as a practice that consists of a perspective and a set of behaviors that can be cultivated. It takes willingness and commitment. Over time we can re-frame how we view accountability and we can learn how to accept taking accountability with more ease.

So what happens when leaders are not actively practicing accountability?

Well, from my experience, the impact can be far reaching. A leader that is not accountable by default deflects responsibility. Deflecting responsibility can come in the form of ignoring problems, dismissing feedback, being overly critical or blaming others for their mistakes.

Over time this behavior can erode trust in the leader and wreak havoc on the very team they are trying to lead. In addition, reputations follow leaders so when someone is “known” for not being accountable it can damage not only their rapport with staff but also their reputation in the organization and beyond.

Here are the 6 reasons why lacking accountability can hurt your career:

1.It hurts your ability to inspire and motivate the team.

People respect leaders that are humble. Humility is often considered a quality where it is noble to downplay our strengths and minimize wins. This is a common misunderstanding. In truth, humility is the ability to equally and gracefully own one’s successes AND failures. A leader who demonstrates humility models what it means to be self aware and courageous.

When we witness someone, especially a person of power, willing to risk clout for the sake of accountability we find it admirable and are inspired to follow them.

2.You discourage innovation and smart risks.

A leader that does not take responsibility for their mistakes creates an environment where people become reluctant and even scared to push for innovation or to take on small and smart risks.

If you are blaming others you are forgetting the cardinal rule of leadership — your team/company’s failure is your own; just like the successes are. Instead of sharing in the responsibility of the mistakes these leaders often put their direct reports on the spot or make examples of those who messed up.

Since no one wants to be reprimanded, when a leader is unaccountable people begin to fear what might happen if they do something that produces unfavorable outcomes. This worry makes people shy away from challenging the status quo and pushing for innovation.

3.You create a culture of scapegoating and competition.

Blaming is the process of finding a scapegoat. Whether the scapegoat is a person or circumstance this impulse creates a culture of pointing fingers and throwing others under the bus.

Culture starts at the top. Once a leader makes it acceptable to deflect responsibility the rest of the staff follows suit. When this happens trust, morale and collaboration are eroded making it increasingly difficult for teams to produce quality results.

Healthy competition in a company is a good thing! However, when a leader blames others, unhealthy types of competition develop. In addition, some leaders may even favor one team or person over another causing favoritism to emerge in the organization.

Unintended favoritism plus the worry of being the scapegoat creates an environment where employees compete to stay in their boss’ good graces. This puts politics not productivity on the front burner creating disruptive work dynamics and decreasing efficiency.

4.You limit your personal development.

Leaders who are unaccountable create environments where receiving feedback from their employees is a big no no. This means that these leaders don’t give themselves the chance to grow from the feedback their employees could provide.

In my coaching, I teach leaders to actively seek feedback from their staff. Understanding the impact of one’s behavior and the reputation that they have is paramount to personal growth. Since reputations follow leaders wherever they go, if the leader is looking to continue to climb the ranks it is even more important that they learn how to manage their reputation and up-level their ability to receive feedback. It will serve them in the long run.

5.You don’t get access to important information.

A leader that deflects, blames and criticizes tends to create an environment where people feel it is best to shut down and not say anything. This means that instead of creating forums for open feedback loops this type of leader creates the opportunity for gossip to flourish.

When employees are scared to freely talk about what they see as cultural and business issues they complain to one another because it is safer than going to the leader.

This is counterproductive and can create a toxic environment and puts the leader (and the company) at a disadvantage. When a leader is out of the loop and unaware of the core issues plaguing their staff they can not deliver on their own core functions — creating ways to increase productivity and maintain morale.

6. You stall team and company growth.

A stall in company growth is measured by a gradual or sustained decline in key metrics. Although there are external factors that cause a stall in growth, internal factors contribute more widely than most leaders admit.

In order to deal with the fall out (turn over, poor performance, etc…) of being unaccountable the leader must focus on internal operations and personnel strategies. This takes their time away from moving the business forward and further perpetuates the stall of growth.