Winning Wednesday #6

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If you want to create an accountable team - of players or employees - it starts with you, at the top.

When we get difficult feedback from an employee or player, it's our default to be defensive. We try to find the gaps in the feedback, work to preserve our own sense of self, and can sometimes even shirk responsibility - responding the exact opposite way that we'd expect our people to.

I had a recent experience that illustrated this example. In my work with an executive team, one member received some difficult feedback about the employee experience they created. In recounting the story, they perpetuated exactly what the employee raised: they blamed other people for canceled opportunities, tried to show the employee what they were wrong about, and shirked responsibility for the experience they created.

Unfortunately, this type of response from leaders is far too common - and it confirms what your employees experience. Rather than use the opportunity to learn and grow, and to model what it looks like to hear feedback effectively and be accountable, it turns into a chance to justify past decisions and behavior. At the end, you've just sent a message that feedback isn't welcome, you think you're right, and you have nothing to learn - again, the opposite of how we'd want any employee to respond!

Accountability is hard, but if your organization isn't culturally operating the way you want, that starts with leadership. We need to examine our actions and try to understand our own, outsized impact on the way people think, feel, and behave when they're a part of what we do. As a leader, you need to show what it means to take ownership of outcomes and to accept responsibility when you fall short. 

The next time one of your team tries to hold you accountable, try this:

• Assume that their feedback is more than 50% correct. If that were the case, what would you learn?

• If you were getting this feedback from a boss, how would you respond?

• What would it look like for you to action this feedback? Would things be better or worse?

Of course, part of being a leader means that you're always dealing with asymmetries of information. You may get feedback that doesn't apply or misses a part of the picture. But that asymmetry of information doesn't have to lead to an asymmetry of accountability. 

If you want an accountable team, be an accountable leader.