Accountability’s Yin-Yang Balance

In answer to questions at the Stanford Graduate School of Business about leadership, managing people, and achieving results, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said: “Everybody likes to say leaders have to insist on accountability, and that’s right, but there’s a yin and a yang to that, too. You want to insist on accountability, but you also want to insist that people stretch themselves and push themselves. If the game is I got done what I said I could do, and you’re really rigorous about that, you will encourage people to set their goals low. And so how do you manage the yin and the yang of stretching people and yet at the same time holding them accountable. That’s sort of a key leadership dimension.”

Ballmer is right. Holding people accountable for results plus getting them to take accountability for achieving even greater results in the future is indeed a major leadership challenge and one that we have addressed in our consulting and training practice over the last two decades. Developing such a yin-yang balance between the two—holding people accountable while helping them take accountability—is greatly enhanced when the third dimension we call “building an accountable culture” is introduced. In short, there are three dimensions to achieving a balanced and comprehensive approach to creating greater accountability: Self, Culture and Others.

-Self:  Taking Personal Accountability. Lays a foundation of personal accountability, helping people embrace their own accountability for achieving organizational results by continually asking the question, “What else can I do?” to overcome obstacles and achieve the result.

–Culture: Building An Accountable Culture. Builds on the personal accountability foundation to create a Culture of Accountability, helping individuals, teams, and entire organizations think and act differently by identifying and internalizing the needed Cultural Beliefs to achieve greater results now and in the future.

-Others: Holding Others Accountable. Focuses on implementing accountability throughout the organization, helping people effectively hold others accountable for results so everyone in the organization can deliver on expectations and follow-through on what is required to be successful.

These three dimensions, or Tracks as we call them, bring a crucial yin-yang balance to accountability, allowing organizations to achieve key results, such as increasing revenues and profitability, reducing costs, and successfully implementing major organizational initiatives. Time and again, the world’s best organizations have shown that greater accountability produces results, lifts morale, and develops individual and organizational capability. Achieving such a yin-yang balance in accountability, as Steve Ballmer confirms, is the quest of every organizational leader because nothing creates more energy and power in an organization than complete, stem-to-stern accountability.

To learn more about the Three Tracks to Greater Accountability (Self, Culture, Others), go to www.partnersinleadership.com.