5 Keys to Creating a Framework for Personal Accountability

As a leader, your primary currency that you have with your team is your credibility. Ineffective leaders spend so much time looking at their team and trying to fix them that they forget to follow Michael Jackson’s advice and start with the man, or woman, in the mirror. Empowered teams’ matter.  Empowered teams come from disciplined leaders. 

To create the environment that you want your team to operate in, it requires you to create an environment for yourself where you go first.

One of the biggest mistakes that will keep you from being influential is assuming that there isn’t a cost for being a leader.  Pat Lencioni, the author of 5 Dysfunctions of Team, said recently that the personal economics of leadership aren’t good.  You are always going to give way more than you get. Selfish leaders are always looking for what they can get from their team vs. what they can give to their team.  

Here are five keys to creating a framework that allows you to show up as your best self in leadership:

1. Do What You Say You Will Do.  It’s important to be mindful of what you are saying and putting out to your team. If you say you are doing something, then do it, or have a really good reason for why you didn’t (there are certainly times where this is OK).  This includes the things you tell yourself that you will do.  Especially, the things you tell yourself you will do.
2. Examine Your Being.  If you find yourself failing to follow through on your doing.  Start examining who you are being in your doing.  BeàDoàHave.  If your doing is off, it has a lot to do with who you are being, or believe yourself to be in your work.
3. Be Mindful.  If you want to examine who you are being. Mindfulness will help you get there. It’s easy to get so wrapped up in activity to a point where you don’t acknowledge your inner state of being and completely cut yourself off from this part of who you are.
4. Create Time and Space.  Create time and space for important work.  This includes morning routines, mindfulness, working on the business, team training, team check ins, etc.  Anything that is important to you would benefit from having dedicated and consistent time to work in it.
5. Participate in Your Personal Growth.  Teams who grow have leaders that are growing. Take time and space to ensure that you continue to expand your consciousness and knowledge of your world to continue to open new possibilities.

Being a leader is challenging.  As Pat Lencioni said above, the personal economics aren’t favorable. You got into leadership, hopefully, because you want to serve others. Taking care of yourself ensures that you make yourself available to create impact on the world around you. 

Ineffective leaders focus on what they are doing and then create a lot of shame and guilt around their behavior when they don’t execute. Powerful leaders who are expanding take the time to examine who they are in their leadership and lean into the process of growing through their limiting beliefs and unproductive conclusions to come out on the other side even more powerful and influential than before.  These five keys provide the framework for making that possible.