The Two Kinds of Accountability Every Team Needs

YO! 

It seems like many of my coaching calls over the last few weeks have focused on Lencioni’s Five Dysfunctions of a Team model. I love the model, and we can spend lots of time discussing each level, but right now, let’s talk about accountability.

From my perspective, there are two kinds of accountability. There is the traditional accountability model where a superior (boss, owner, team lead) needs to have an accountability conversation. There is also peer-to-peer accountability where a person recognizes the need for a conversation to happen… AND HAS THAT CONVERSATION.

The first kind of accountability I call “triangular accountability.” It’s the classic example of Mary doing something wrong/incorrect. Jane sees that it occurred, but instead of going to Mary to deal with it, Jane comes to YOU and says, “You need to go talk to Mary; she did XYZ.”

Traditionally, that puts us in a very difficult spot. You now have to do a few things:

• You have to find out exactly what happened and when.
• You have to get specific examples from Jane
• You have to set up a time to talk to Mary
• You have to have the discussion with Mary

This typically takes a few days to accomplish, and by then, everyone has forgotten what the hell happened in the first place!

Then you finally get to the time where you go talk to Mary, only to have her say, “That’s not what happened.”

At this point, you feel like pulling your hair out of your head. Traditional (triangular) accountability works, but it’s slow, inefficient, and full of friction. As our good friend Perrin likes to say, “It’s like sand in your vaseline.” 

The other option, peer-to-peer accountability, works. It’s quicker and often with less friction. It works if the team has already decided what they are fighting for and what winning looks like for the team (we will talk about that more deeply at a later time). Team members need to go INTO THE STORM and have the courage to have this conversation. When you, as the owner, preach this all the time, they will start to do it.

I preach this to my leaders constantly. They are finally starting to get it…and it’s amazing! 

We have become so passionate about this that we give team members an “Into the Storm” trophy to be passed around weekly for someone exhibiting this behavior.

GSD!