ACCOUNTABILITY IN LEADERSHIP| ACCOUNTABILITY QUOTIENT|

A story our late President and missile man Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam was particularly fond of related to the launch of a satellite by the Indian Space Research Organisation in July 1979. Kalam was in charge of the project at ISRO and when some members expressed reservations about its readiness, he overruled them and ordered it to go ahead. The launch failed; instead of going into space, the satellite plunged into the Bay of Bengal. As a team leader, Kalam was humiliated by the failure and terrified by the prospect of announcing it before the press. He was saved from embarrassment by the chairman of ISRO, Satish Dhawan, who went himself before the television cameras to say that despite this failure he reposed complete faith in the abilities of his team and was confident that their next attempt would succeed.

The following August, Kalam and his team tried once more to launch a satellite into space. This time they succeeded. Dhawan congratulated the team while asking Kalam to address the press conference. In telling the story in later years, during and after his term as president of India, Kalam would emotionally recall: “When the failure occurred, the leader owned it up. When the success came, he gave the credit to his team.” 

Satish Dhawan may not be a popular name however he was surely instrumental in creating leaders like Hon. APJ Abdul Kalam foremost space scientist who gave the same environment of the experiment under his accountability. A man who took care of his team encouraged them to take the risk under his accountability. While holding office he never misused his powers or create personal wealth, but in leading an ethical and iconic leadership chair he built an epitome in leadership for the world of leaders to emulate.

It is easy to subject the team under the scanner and criticize thread bear. A more important trait as a leader is to take accountability when things go wrong to create a safe workspace. Accountability is one of the most important aspects of leadership without which your role is redundant. You need to provide freedom of operation and risk for the most innovative products to be christened.

Let’s understand the behaviors associated with highly accountable people and explain how they lead to increased trust, stronger relationships, and better business outcomes.  

Meaning of Accountability at Workspace

Accountability is accepting responsibility for your actions and being willing to own the outcomes of your choices, decisions, and actions. It may be helpful to share examples of what high and low accountability levels look like in action from a leadership perspective. 

Let’s say the head of your organization made a bad strategic decision. As a result, the entire company is working overtime to put out multiple fires. Instead of brushing everything under the rug or blaming the other executives who were part of the decision-making process, your leader publicly takes ownership of her mistake, explains how she plans to avoid a similar outcome in the future, and thanks to all the employees for their hard work and understanding. This is an example of a highly accountable leader.

Ways to Foster Accountability

Accountability Guideline from the best research –

1. Giving Support -By providing a fail-safe environment and encouraging experiments is the fundamental step for accountability. Your performance as a leader is not dumbing down the process but also supporting your meritorious hires to bring their genius to work. To thrive in the dynamic world of change, you need to be experiment savvy and not create an edifice of compulsions. Great organizations like Google have established the best supportive environment for employees while they innovate to bring the best to their customers. They have become our survival services rather than luxury needs.
2. Provide Freedom -Brightest today wants an environment of freedom to learn -execute -engage rather than being puppets. This environment eventually is a win-win for all. While there is a lot to learn from experience, the reverse is also true the young bring fresh ideas-innovative methods, and creative resources which also need to be leveraged.
3. Share Information -As an accountable leader it’s critical to orient the team and not withhold information that could impact projects -performance-productivity and eventually the growth of the organization. It is easy to reprimand for actions however to correct them on time for transformation is the larger game of an Accountable Leader whose team always wins. As a leader, you are not being compensated to give solutions but bringing in and nurturing the right talent.
4. Provide Resources -Are you constantly trying to be cheaper-better -faster…as the best projects sometimes need optimal resources to be successful. Some recipes do need butter-ghee for the outcomes!!! True simplification is being smart, however, for your innovation, you need to have the right budgets rather than compromise.
5. Be Clear -Clarity in vision and goals is the foundation of any accomplishment. The ways to your destination can be many however destination needs to be determined for your team to be on track.

Accountability leads to great leadership and successful management by building trust, strengthening relationships, and keeping costs under control. This muscle sure can be built by inspiration, mentoring, and coaching. Mentors and coaches can support many aspects of accountability – from improving leaders’ abilities to follow through on actions and taking ownership fearlessly.  

Your Accountability Quotient -Score yourself a 1-5 based on how often you are doing the following actions at work. (1 being least and 5 being highest. Higher the score better is your AQ)

1. Always encourage my team to experiment in their innovation journey.
2. Hire-train right and then allow freedom without the fear of failure.
3. Share information with stakeholders without insecurity.
4. Always work on optimal resources before I launch the projects or promise completion. I also take the team into confidence while doing so.
5. Prioritize clarity and organize workshops before takeoff on goals and not create an imposition method while running productivity.
6. While working with the team to objectively unravel reasons for failures, avoid staining them with the malice and bloodshed of failure.
7. Objectively help the team to work on a comeback after a letdown and not glorify my pedestal while doing so.
8. Believe as a team we win rather than wear the crown of accomplishment.
9. Catch people on time to support their transformative journey rather than engage in grapevine.

What are your thoughts on accountability? Do you think playing scapegoat is a better way rather than ownership and staining yourself? When you complain about others’ mistakes are you able to see yours? How do you think you could get better by practicing accountability? How powerful do you feel when you practice accountability? How was your score? What are the next steps? Love to hear from you and your perspectives on Accountability – a not-so-easy trait to emulate!!