Accountability: “The quality or state of being accountable; an obligation or willingness to accept responsibility or to account for one’s actions.”

Accountability starts with you, vibrates to those around you and ends up back in your lap. If you believe a leader sets the culture of an organization then you must believe you cannot create an organization of accountability if you’re lacking in your daily disciplines.

If you’re not willing to hold yourself accountable then for sure you can’t hold others accountable.

Why should those around you do what has been deemed important, if you as their leader aren’t willing to do the same? There are a million ways to describe this, but since I’m a common sense guy, how about “monkey see, monkey do?”

A good leader makes sure those around them know what’s important. And a good leader makes things important by checking to make sure those around them are doing what’s important.

Building an organization of accountability isn’t a one-time thing. It’s an everyday thing led by you.

Accountability plays no favorites. If you let one person off the hook, eventually the entire organization falls off the hook.

Besides your personal accountability, there are three parts to holding people accountable.

1. Your personal street savvy. For many, this is based on time and experience and there are a few that are born with it.

2. Getting your head out of the sand. Get out of your office. Pay attention by using your peripheral vision and hearing.

3. Data. Look at the data and look at it some more. Data can be overwhelming. Figure out what’s important and what’s not by applying common sense to everything you’re looking at.

Sometimes data is misleading. Sometimes it smacks you upside your head.

Are you building an organization of accountability? That’s all I’m gonna ask, Tommy Gibbs