8 MORE Traits Great Leaders Embody
The Oz Principle defines accountability as “a personal choice to rise above one’s circumstances and demonstrate the ownership necessary for achieving desired results: to See It, Own It, Solve It, Do It.”® It sounds easy, but as leaders how do we effectively implement this seemingly simple principle?
Through an extensive decade-long study of employees across a variety of sectors, we identified 16 Accountability Traits that characterize every accountable leader. Last week, we looked at the first 8 of 16 Accountability Traits. Read on to discover 8 MORE. Embody even a handful of these for greater impact—on results, on employee engagement, and company culture.
Curious how you measure up? Take this quiz based on the 16 Accountability Traits needed for personal and team success.
Accountability Traits 9-16 correspond to the last two Steps To Accountability®: Solve It®, and Do It®. Read 1-8 Accountability Traits here.
Do You Solve It®?
- Constantly asking, “What else can I do?”
Those who are serious about finding solutions are never satisfied with simply fulfilling their own responsibilities, but rather, are constantly asking what else they can do to advance the company or project towards its goals. Many capable employees look to others, wondering why no one else works harder or more proactively than themselves. But few who see a lack of engagement in others take the next crucial step: owning that problem by determining their own role in it, then seeking out methods that might solve it.
- Collaborating across functional boundaries.
Once you’ve identified a problem that must be overcome in order to more effectively deliver on the Key Results you’ve identified for your team or organization, your efforts to resolve it will almost certainly be met with obstacles and barriers. People from other departments and teams can be some of your most critical resources in working around problems, simply because they bring a different perspective to the table. A willingness to work across functional boundaries will give you access to diverse perspectives and capabilities that you might never have been able to channel on your own.
- Creatively dealing with obstacles.
Even if you’ve mapped out your Key Results and have outlined the steps necessary to achieve them, it’s only natural that obstacles will arise along the way. Critical to actually overcoming the problems your organization, team, or you personally face is a dedication and drive to seek unorthodox and unexpected solutions. There are very few goals worth achieving that will be easy to accomplish the first time around — leaders who practice accountability never stop thinking creatively about how to bring about positive results for the organization.
- Taking the necessary risks.
Often when the setbacks are bigger, you have to take greater risks. Of course, that doesn’t mean being irresponsible with your decision-making power — you have to be judicious when weighing the potential pros and cons of each decision. Still, it’s generally accepted that risk-taking is almost always part of the equation when it comes to solving difficult problems.
Finally, Do It®.
- Doing the things I say I’ll do.
Once you’ve identified the problem, recognized the factors that contribute to it, and created a workable solution, you must take the initiative to follow through and actually execute on your plan. This is true in all aspects of work life, not just when dealing with team-wide or organization-wide problems: leaders who embody this trait keep close track of everything they promise others, and hold themselves accountable for actually following through on these promises.
- Staying Above The Line by not blaming others.
When you do finally deliver on Key Results, preserve team unity by remaining Above The Line. This means being upfront and candid with coworkers rather than resorting to finger-pointing when you encounter difficulties along the way. That’s not to say it’s wrong or immoral to complain in private — everyone goes Below The Line sometimes to vent, it’s a part of being human! What’s damaging, however, is getting stuck in that mode, forgetting that solutions exist beyond merely complaining about the problem.
- Tracking progress with proactive and transparent reporting.
To be able to achieve the results that you desire, you must constantly keep track of your progress towards them. There’s a common disconnect between these two things: organizations often discuss their goals at length, but go silent about the project after a few weeks. Give regular updates on your team’s progress towards Key Results — not only so that your employees know what needs to be done in order to reach them, but simply to remind them of what the company’s priorities are.
- Building an environment of trust.
What I’ve learned over the years is that trust is not a trait that some people have and others don’t, but an outcome of certain processes. If you practice the other fifteen traits we’ve discussed, what inevitably results is an environment of trust. When leaders take accountability seriously, they foster the same fastidiousness in their employees — that means that everyone is one the same page about what the organization’s goals are and how to achieve them.
Creating Results and Shaping Change
Leaders who successfully engage their teams to achieve key results nurture a positive attitude in the workplace around accountability. Too often, accountability is misunderstood as a punitive measure to correct poor performance, resulting in power plays and blame games. Leaders who can shift the perception of accountability from something that is dished out after things go wrong to a process of learning in which expectations are consistent and clear from the get-go are more successful at preventing things from going wrong in the first place.
This shift requires a dedicated leader who is aware of how he embodies and demonstrates accountability. Possessing this self-awareness can transform you into a leader who can rally the troops while providing the right amount of trust and support for the team to thrive.
Curious how you measure up? Take this quiz based on the 16 Accountability Traits needed for personal and team success.
