On Accountibility

I love stories, great storytelling, and great storytellers. Whether they tell with words, with music, with visual arts, multimedia - whatever the style, great storytellers bind societies and cultures. And, sadly, all too often, the power of story has been lost in today's results-obsessed corporate climate.

I like the metaphor of "story" as a way to view life. Because in my mind, if you accept that your life, your career and everything that happens in them is your story, it forces accountability. By accepting the metaphor you accept that you are authoring your story, you are the central character in your story, and you are in control. You control or 'write' the plotline, the people who are part of your story and the roles they play, and so on. And, most important, you control the personality and style of you, the central character. In other words, you are accountible for yourself.

Accountability is the cornerstone of leadership. You are either accountible for what you do or you are not.

It has been fascinating to watch the CEOs of the great implosion companies of the last decade - Enron, Nortel, Worldcomm, Tyco, and so on - deny their accountibility in court. The act of denying their accountibility, in my mind, marks their leadership.

By denying accountibility, they deny the core of their leadership. And for their denial they deserve whatever the courts throw at them.

If you are going to take the mantle of leadership, and the perks that go with it, take the accountibility as well. If you are not prepared to do that, then you put yourself in the august company of the business leaders of the 90s who are currently in jail, pergatory - or a pine box.

Comments

[Kate Trgovac]

So true! One of the philosophies that I've tried to follow as a leader of teams: they get the credit, I take the blame.

I think, though, that people who can accept accountability are also the type of leader who will hire people who are smarter than they are and really act as a conductor of a great orchestra rather than the person who has to be maniacally in control. All these qualities go together.

Great post! Looking forward to more observations on leadership!