Accountability

This past Sunday, I was watching Meet the Press. The group was in a discussion about the President and their views on how he was doing. This blog is not about how he was doing, but more about what I noticed every one of them saying. They spoke of Obama as someone who has missed the mark because he hasn’t taken responsibility. They also said (indirectly) that he hadn’t been held accountable by the public yet. One individual said that when the public finally begins to hold him accountable for his actions, he will be a much more effective president. I found this to be an interesting statement. If you think about it, without any political bias, the President hasn’t truly been held accountable for his actions. Satire shows, pundits, and others have now begun to make comments that he hasn’t accomplished anything substantial or done enough of what he set out to accomplish. Unfortunately, the President hasn’t taken responsibility for this either. In fact, one of the sound bites and one of the individuals on the panel commented that the mess we are in is because of the previous President. Let me ask you, as a business owner, how long do you allow a new manager to blame the previous manager for the problems in the business? If they’re lucky, they have about 2 months of the blame game…but that’s it. And even then, you hold the new manager accountable for their actions…without referring to the previous manager.
Again, this is not about political support, but about true leadership. Holding someone accountable is critical to getting the most of the individual and the team. If you have an individual who refused to be held accountable or doesn’t take responsible, what do you do? You usually terminate their employment. Lay the framework for your team, then hold them accountable.