Don’t Weaponize Accountability

Early in my career, blame was important to me.

If something went wrong, I wanted to know who did it. I wanted to know why they did. I'd march them into my office. I'd tear them down. I'd add another meeting. I'd add a meeting about the meeting. I'd undermine them in the meeting. I'd add a new SOP. I'd add another person to watch over them. I'd make sarcastic comments - "I know that you are not going to do xxx again, are you?" I gave out blame medals like Oprah gave out cars - You get blame! You get blame! Everyone gets blame!

And then I woke up! I was playing the role of victim when in fact I cast myself as a jackass. I would give anything to go back and correct my ways! But instead I'm left with this post (after having apologized to those people a long time ago).

What I learned was that while I was busy assigning blame, my team was updating resumes; they no longer trusted; they stopped communicating; they were giving up on me the way that I gave up on them.

It was when I Founded my first business that I woke up. I learned that leadership is not theater. It's not using time on what went wrong. It's instead about overcoming challenges, solving problems, teaching others how to do the same, motivating the team, saying thank you for what they did right and coaching on what could be improved. It was about being the leader that my team needed when things did fall apart. The person that rushed to help. That fixed things. And that gave a high five when we course corrected.

The best leaders don't weaponize accountability- they build trust.