Accountability Inverted: Ten questions to change your leadership culture

I was recently required to submit a resume for a “leadership coaching and team development” consulting contract and realized my past leadership experience tells nothing about my skills as a leader today.

Demographics have changed, responsibilities have changed, and expectations have changed.  It is not enough to get better at doing what we have always done.  We have to understand the role of leadership in a completely different way.   It is no longer enough, even in these economic times, to make a dollar – people want to make a difference.

Organizations like Amazon, SalesForce, Zappos, Southwest Airlines, Morning Star and HCL Technologies have turned the traditional role of leadership upside down.  In the old business model employees were accountable to leadership, today leaders and employees are EQUALLY accountable to each other.    This kind of accountability is not found in empty proclamations but actionable conversations.

If your team has been conditioned to in old school command and control leadership try introducing one or more of these questions in your leadership coaching.  Ask your leaders for the most recent instances where they:

1. -Listened when it was painful to hear

2. -Asked when they were “afraid” to know

3. -Questioned something they had always believed

4. -Stood up when it was safer to sit out

5. -Forgave something unforgivable

6. -Gave credit when they might have accepted the praise

7. -Experimented with something completely new

8. -Included others when it would have been easier or faster to go it alone

9. -Refrained when it is more popular to complain

10. -Made their most recent big mistake

Use this process to shake up your next staff meeting.  Write each of these phrases on a 3 by 5 card and put them upside down in the center of the table.  Ask participants to pick a card and share a time when they either chose one of the actions described on the card or experienced someone else doing so with another member of the team.  Then ask for volunteers to share examples with the team.  It is a great opportunity for everyone to be reminded that great leadership requires seeking out difficult conversations and making uncomfortable choices.  It is also a chance to share and refine your organizational story.  Turn the top rated story from that meeting into an article, newsletter or poster for all team members that both defines and reminds.

Great leaders are not defined by experiences or acronyms but by the ability to learn from and communicate powerful stories that both enrich minds and inspire hearts.