After completing a coaching session, I sometimes cannot help feeling the enormous weight of my client’s job. I may even catch myself sighing on their behalf.
I have tremendous compassion as well as admiration for the leaders I coach, because they manage such full plates. One of the most useful things I can do is help them figure out how to distribute responsibility more broadly.
When teams truly practice mutual accountability, leadership is easier, and individual efforts get fortified. Every challenge, risk, and goal is backed up by more talent and attention.
When peers share accountability, they do not wait for top leaders to address information gaps and problems. Colleagues feel both obliged and empowered to speak up when shared expectations are in jeopardy. They do this by asking questions, noticing without judgment, offering help, owning their own mistakes, and prioritizing collaboration over individual results. These behaviors, and the values they reflect, are celebrated in cultures of mutual accountability.
Team members at any level can model and informally encourage mutual accountability, one interaction at a time, regardless of their team’s starting place. (Just remember to respect roles and don’t intrusively step on toes). I invite you to try one of the following “moves” this week:
- Offer help (information, ideas, resources…) to a colleague in an adjacent function
- Propose or negotiate a new co-owned goal with a team that complements yours
- Explain how one of your decisions optimizes for the organization – not just for your area
- Humbly invite advice and collaboration from colleagues with different expertise
- Improve transparency into how different workstreams contribute to collective goals
- Thank and celebrate the contributions of other functions that help you succeed
When you cultivate more mutual accountability, you reduce the internal threats to results. You reduce misunderstandings and friction, vulnerability to the weak links, and the risk of problems that lurk in the leader’s blind spot.
At the same time, sharing accountability can strengthen a host of organizational attributes. They include: team trust, motivation, learning, healthy risk-taking, collaboration, smart innovation, professional growth, and performance measurement.
So what are you waiting for?! I’d love to hear how it goes.
