I have received many questions from business owners and leaders about how to hold others accountable so they can lead their team to achieve extraordinary results.

This is lesson #5 out of six lessons I’ve learned about being a leader who powerfully holds others accountable.

I am powerful when holding others accountable. When we think of holding others accountable, we automatically assume it means babysitting them – knowing that they don’t want to do something and that they will resist.

Having all my attention on the results does not achieve the results. While I do need to have attention on the results, that’s not actually what causes the results.

What causes the results is my willingness to BE the vision – being the walking, talking vision so that everything I do expresses the vision and my goals get reached naturally and I don’t get burned out.

Accountability shows up as an opportunity for people to do what they said they would do. It’s also an opportunity to develop myself as a leader as well as my team.

As a leader, I’m the coach. I have the opportunity to inquire and examine, “Where are my blind spots?” As a team, we said we would do 10, and we only did 3.

While we missed the mark, I’m still committed as a leader. I’m still inspired and committed to achieving our vision. I coach my employees to look at their results and explore “What is missing?” “What if present, would make a difference in us achieving our desired results?”

It’s an inquiry, not something to feel bad about, guilty or disempowered by. It’s something to learn and develop myself (and my team) and grow.

I’m counting things and measuring results. Because I have a strong interest in where the rubber meets the road, where intention meets reality.

When my team doesn’t hit the bulls-eye, I am willing to ask myself, “Who am I being as a leader that has us not hitting the mark?” and then to coach my team members from the perspective, “Who are my team members being that has them missing the mark?”

Successful leaders are willing to hold themselves and their team member accountable because they know that accountability is not about “being the bad guy” or making others “wrong.” They know that accountability is an opportunity for honest inquiry and growth so they can course-correct and succeed with hitting the mark in the end.

Author's Bio: 

Are you a small business owner who would like to discover unique, cutting edge approaches for leading your team to double sales while making an extraordinary impact in your business?

Leslie has over 20 years of experience in leading workshops, educational seminars and empowering small business owners and entrepreneurs around the topic of empowering their teams to double their sales and achieve outrageous results while making an extraordinary impact.
Leslie is an international author whose work has appeared in the Chicken Soup for the Soul series, and a monthly columnist for “Balance: A Magazine for Montana Women”.
Leslie is a radio personality and former talk show radio host. She hosted her own weekly 2-hour call-in talk radio show called “Living Richly,” and has appeared live on CBS (formally CNN) News Talk Radio. She interviewed experts like 6-time Oprah guest Olivia Mellan and SARK whose national bestsellers have sold more than two million copies, and numerous other authors and speakers.
Award-winning Small Business Mentor and Teamwork expert, Leslie Cunningham is one of the leading experts in empowering small business owners to double their sales, performance and bottom line profits with their employee teams.
She has over 20 years experience in working with small business owners and entrepreneurs and facilitating groups, developing educational programs and building cohesive teams to achieve breakthrough results.