Why accountability isn't the recipe for success as a leader

I do not believe that accountability is part of the recipe for success

In fact I believe it is a strong part of the recipe for stress, overwhelm and burnout.

I don’t mean to dismiss accountability out off hand and this isn’t semantics either.

We use accountability to use our brains against ourselves.

We use it to force us to prioritise, to leverage our own guilt if we don’t keep our commitments. We use it because of the social threat triggered in our brains when we have to say to our peers, I didn’t do what I said I would do.

If we peel back a little deeper what we are saying is, we are using stress (which is business for fear) to make us do things we wouldn’t ordinarily do (because we don’t want to) without the fear.

That is a stress that keeps our nervous system on high alert (sympathetic) all of the time.

But the brain won’t tolerate it for long.

Before long it find a way out, quitting, illness, stress absence, strong excuses, memory loss, denial, the brain ALWAYS priorities safety and so will always resist accountability in the end.

Accountability then is the enemy of habit and the goal of consistently delivering is to create a habit of success.

What’s required instead then is the willingness to discuss both what will create that success and what is standing in the way of it. Rather than using pressure to force action, to use clarity to create action.

So what are the 3 things that stand in the way?

Incompetence

Clarity around the skills you have that will support the job and the skills that you lack and the exact steps you will take to acquire those skills.

Ignorance

Clarity the knowledge that you require to achieve your goal and the knowledges that you lack and the exact steps you will take to close that gap.

Inconsistency

Clarity around the exact steps you need to repeatedly take in order to produce the desired outcome. But more importantly clarity around the precise things that are standing in the way of that consistency and a plan to prevent them from getting in the way.

It is not accountability that is needed but rather support to help you create clarity around your ignorance, incompetence and consistency and the willingness to provide that support. As well as the acknowledgment that we are all ignorant, incompetent and inconsistent in more areas that we are not instead of pretending we are not.

Is your business run by FEAR or CLARITY?

Honestly, most are experiencing the pains of running around fear and accountability but don’t know of any other way.



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