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Team Accountability = Ownership - a sample of what is in my leadership book.
Without a doubt, leadership comes with a set of core values that you must learn in order to accept your own fate and destiny as a leader. One such core value is accountability – of acts, words, and decisions. At the same time, this core value applies equally to those who are under the command of such a leader.
There are few exceptions to this rule and it must never be forgotten that every action has a reaction – good or bad. As a leader, he or she must provide things e.g. resources to allow their expectations or directions to become a reality of being capable or able to do the job. When such resources are denied or insufficiently provided, the leader bears the burden of failures and must be held accountable for such lack of quality or untimely work habits.
Without a doubt, accountability makes any team stronger and more focused on success. Therefore, we should welcome such actions and encourage others to bring forward those areas that need improvement.
If this is not done, then what does it say about the team’s commitment to being the best they can be. If this did not happen then how are we to assess what worked and what didn’t work as well as answering the why it failed. This is not what team leaders or members sign up for when being a professional at their jobs.
So in order to uphold these standards, a team leader must first look at themselves before holding others accountable. This ‘mirror test’ is an instrumental part of pointing out your own faults before pointing out the faults of the team.
Putting our own behavior in check is holding yourself to a higher standard. It is also a major element of trust building within the team and at the same time, when you monitor your own behavior, the team will more readily accept their responsibility to change themselves as well.
Secondly, this creates a conscious attempt or lucid awareness to match your credibility and your authority to maintain oversight and input on all projects making all work off the same sheet of instructions or directions.
So if you feel that trust, credibility and setting yourself to a higher standard than the team is an element for positive growth, it is reasonable to believe that each team member will feel the same way and charge the entire team with positive energy to get the job done.
If something needs to be discussed with a team member, it is the team leader’s responsibility, not that of human resources, or anyone else designated to address the issue with the team member. So often mid-level supervisors and managers don’t want to do the hard part of their job and instead want an someone else to deliver the corrective message to the team member. In this team concept, we are all responsible for those who work directly and indirectly for us. Let’s not pass the buck to a designated “hitman” or person who is not part the team leader.
If you truly believe this is an “Alice in wonderland” feature of management, then you are not a servant leader for it is plain to see you depend on others outside your team concept to hand out corrective action or discipline that is well worth taking notice of that if this is the style used, the team will become suspicious, less trusting, determine their leader is not actually in charge of them and submit to rumors and gossip rather that facts that a credible team leader can provide when things go bad.
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