bill berry

Follow @bbebop on Micro.blog.

some thoughts on accountability

(a work in progress)

i hate the phrase “hold people accountable”

because it almost always means

hold other people accountable

when we should focus on
being accountable ourselves.

also

when employees ask/talk about accountability
they’re mostly reflecting on the

poor managers
poor supervisors
poor individual contributors

and

poor “leaders”

who stay in place

doing a poor job

year
after
year
after
year

and

who clearly aren’t being held
accountable.

when we don’t hold
people accountable,
we’re not being
accountable
ourselves.

and if we’re not accountable

we give others permission

we invite them

we encourage them

to not be accountable.

saying accountability starts with us

is actually wrong.

accountability starts with the person
in the mirror.

accountability starts with me.

if i have to hold people accountable,

that means

i don’t have accountable people

and should.

develop accountable people

starting with the person

in

the

mirror

etc., etc., etc., yadda yadda yadda, blah. blah. blah.