“Leaders inspire accountability through their ability to accept responsibility before they place blame.”
Courtney Lynch
On of my long-time favorite mantras is “fix the problem, not the blame.” Instead of investing your effort into finding out who who is at fault, and why they are accountable, focus on what happened and what is needed to fix it. I love the way this quote frames out that accountability is a result of leading by example. You can’t have accountability if the leader doesn’t walk the talk by accepting responsibility. This seems so obvious, yet rare in practice.
It is far easier to try and “hold others accountable” instead of first focusing on our responsibility as leaders for the outcomes and engendering an ownership mentality. If you want to create a culture of accountability, take responsibility for the results.
Accountability starts with self…
