Exceptional leaders seek and use leverage points.  

These are the small actions in one thing that produce a big change in everything. So, as budgets get tighter and performance pressure increases, is there a leverage point we can use to accelerate progress and lift performance before the end of 2024? 

Yes there is. 

Supporting and developing your leaders to lead accountability, exceptionally.  

Leaders are the single most powerful leverage point in any system – whether that’s an organisation, a school, a business or a team – to make a difference. 

If leaders are not feeling well, doing well and leading well the system simply cannot thrive.  

Leaders are the ceiling of thriving to any system they lead.  

Why is this? 

Because leaders shape culture. In fact, I’d go further than that and say that leaders create culture. 

When do you think about it, what we do as leaders, how we show up – our attitude, the questions we ask, where we focus resources, how we handle accountability conversations – and let’s face it whether we’re even having accountability conversations – shapes the performance and progress of our team or business. 

So if there’s one thing I’d focus on right now, it’s helping leaders manage the natural tension that exist between people and performance so they’re able to manage it well. 

And if there’s one thing that will make the most difference in leaders being able to do that, it’s helping them lead accountability better. 

When leaders do accountability well people understand what is theirs to own, and equally what isn’t. And this includes the leaders themselves. Micromanagement reduces, naming blaming and shaming leaves the room, and the right conversations about the right things are had at the right time, in the right way. 

And beyond boosting progress and performance, clearing and cleaning up accountability goes a long way to reducing the potential for burnout in the workplace, by addressing both ‘over-work’ and ‘under-work’ and ensuring the appropriate distribution of workload and responsibility. Because this is the thing about accountability – when it’s not done well, it’s our high performers – those people who are willing to lean in and get the work done that are most impacted. They are the ones that get burned out first. 

But the impact doesn’t stop there.  In fact, research shows that when leaders get accountability wrong 

• two-thirds of team members don’t see due dates as real commitments,  

• 3 out of 4 team members see solving problems as ‘someone else’s job’,  

• 85% are unsure what the organisation is trying to achieve. 

85% ! 

So as we start the final quarter and look towards the end of this year, if you’re a leader reading this, I encourage you to invest in yourself, take radical self-care so that you can do what’s only yours to do: lead accountability well. 

And if you’re a leader of leaders reading this, I say invest in your leaders. Because helping them lead accountability better is the one thing that will give you the biggest return on your investment.