How’s Your Accountability Style Working?

Most of us tend toward one end of the Accountability Styles continuum or the other. Which side of the continuum do you favor? Consider the strengths and weakness of each side as you answer the question. On one side of the continuum we have Coerce & Compel, on the other, Wait & See.

Coerce & Compel  <—————————|—————————>  Wait & See

The Coerce & Compel style incorporates many strengths: takes action and steps in when things go wrong, exercises persistent follow-up, doesn’t give up easily, ensures frequent and regular reporting, communicates high expectations, and stays focused on the task at hand. The weaknesses associated with this style include the following: intimidates others, overreacts to bad news, tends to force things to happen, willingly sacrifices relationships, resists a people-oriented approach, and lacks sufficient trust in others.

The Wait & See style also has a number of strengths: strongly supports people, emphasizes giving people freedom to succeed or fail, places a lot of trust in others, steps in with great caution, builds strong loyalty and support in others, and thoroughly thinks through intervention before acting. As with Coerce & Compel, there are weaknesses related to Wait & See: avoids a proactive approach, strikes people as disengaged, makes false assumptions that things are happening, does not follow up often enough, tends to err on the side of not intervening, and sets low expectations.

Either extreme on the continuum weakens your ability to hold others accountable. Acknowledging and understanding your Accountability Style can help place you at a more optimal point on the continuum. We call this point the “Positive, Principled Way” and consider it to be a per­fect blend of strengths from both Accountability Styles, which, of course, mitigates the weaknesses of each extreme.

To learn more about avoiding the extremes of the Coerce & Compel or Wait & See Accountability Styles, we invite you to join the Accountability Community at www.partnersinleadership.com, where you can review actual client case studies and assess your current Accountability Style more accurately.

Sign up for one of our upcoming webinars to learn how you can use accountability to become an even stronger leader.

Accountability Styles and Accountability Community are registered trademarks of Partners In Leadership, Inc. All other registered trademarks and trademarks used herein are the property of their respective owners.