Compassionate Accountability

I just read an article from the Harvard Business Review about holding your team accountable in a compassionate manner. The article raised some great points, and I think leaders should spend some time thinking about new ways to hold people accountable. Of course, what’s discussed in this article can be directly applied to our regular lives if we are true to ourselves and really think about the decisions that we are making.

The article is titled, “3 Ways to Compassionately Hold Your Team Accountable.” You can read the full article here.

It starts with a short vignette and a set of questions:

“Leaders have always had to balance compassion and accountability — and in recent years, we’ve seen the pendulum swing wildly in both directions. During the early years of the pandemic, many organizations made their people a priority, offering flexibility, mental health benefits, and other support to help employees navigate a stressful time. Recently, as interest rates and inflation have risen, we’ve seen leaders change their tune, dialing back on some benefits, bringing people back to the office, and placing more emphasis on results: meeting deadlines, hitting targets, and growing revenues.”

“This situation has left employees, managers, and executives wondering: Is it possible to create accountability without the whiplash, in a way that makes people feel like their needs still matter? Does it have to be a binary issue of care versus results? And what are the most effective ways of creating accountability across all levels of an organization?”

The article then explains what they call “The Science of Accountability,” focusing on two types: Threatening and Worthy Challenge. The article advances the idea that the second type is the better approach, which I totally agree with.

Worthy challenge is about taking ownership of a task as an opportunity for growth, where failure to achieve a particular task should be viewed as a way to improve, thus aiding growth in the end. The article sees this approach as:

“Encouraging a growth mindset accelerates individual performance, learning, adaptability, and overall well-being. And because growth-oriented accountability rewards employees for taking risks and encourages a growth mindset, it has knock-on benefits for team culture. In particular, it compels people to find solutions to the mistakes others have made rather than blaming or shaming them.”

The article ends by describing three habits that build accountability: Think Ahead, Own Your Commitments, and Anchor on Solutions.

Thinking ahead is a crucial step. We need to visualize a task from start to finish and understand the end state. If you can’t visualize a task and fully understand what you are going to ask your people to do, then you can’t blame them when they fail to execute. If, as a leader, you are not doing your part and are just throwing a task out there, hoping that someone will do the mental work for you and complete the task in a timely manner, then you are a failure as a leader. It is unfair not only to the members of your team but also to the organization.

The article states it beautifully:

“The more vividly a leader can envision how they’d like the job done and anticipate obstacles, the easier it will be to communicate that vision to the employee.”

Own your commitments. If a leader gives a directive to their team, then the leader needs to fully commit and gain the trust of their team by working and executing at the same performance level as everybody else. The article provides this example:

“Let’s say a leader sets a firm deadline for the team regarding a major department-wide project but fails to meet the deadline for their portion of the work. In addition to lowering expectations for themselves, the leader risks creating a fairness threat that could cause employees to shirk future deadlines and disengage from important projects. If, instead, the leader had owned their commitments, they would have prioritized ahead of time and met their deadline, reinforcing for their team the importance of staying accountable.”

Can you imagine how demoralizing that is for your team? You set a deadline that you cannot meet yourself, so how are you going to hold your team accountable?

I saw this in the Army far too many times. For example, a commander tells an organization that a plan needs to be written and published within a certain number of days, but when the plan is ready for publication, the staff is waiting for the commander to review and sign it, which often happens a week or two after the deadline. There is no way that you can hold anybody accountable if a leader cannot own their commitments.

Anchor on solutions essentially means not dwelling on mistakes but working to correct deficiencies by finding solutions to problems. Engaging in the blame game is counterproductive. Instead, the team should come together and work on solving the problem.

How can we apply this to our personal lives?

Money is an area where this can easily apply. Many couples make commitments to follow a budget, for example, and then either the husband or the wife breaks the commitment, and things spiral out of control. Instead of owning the commitment, they start arguing, and in some cases, the relationship ends in divorce. Instead of arguing, the couple should discuss the issue, identify what went wrong, and find solutions so they can get back on track. The end result is not only a good budget that is meeting the couple’s short-term and long-term goals but also a couple that is growing in their relationship.

It was a great article, and I hope you find this post and the article useful and informative.

51 thoughts on “Compassionate Accountability”

  4. An article (HBR) and a post (EO) that should be required reading for people in positions of authority. If only our political “leaders” would think ahead, own commitments, and focus on solutions instead of blame.
    Thank you for this timely, excellent post.

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  5. I’m reminded of valuable teachings of my High School forensics coach. There are two ways to create a debate case ~ needs-harm and comparative advantage. In the first you prove something’s wrong before trying to fix it. In the second all that needs to be proven is that the new plan will work to advantage over the old ~ from existing strength to greater strength. He told us the second kind was the harder to write, but the easiest to defend.

    Thinking ahead, as you describe it, reminds me of hitting a tennis ball. You wouldn’t think it would make any difference, but unless your racket keeps right on going in an arc after connecting with it, that ball is pretty much going to drop straight down from there…

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  6. Excellent article. Thank you for sharing. I agree with you and Harvard Business Review. The Compassionate Accountability approach is one we need to explain to new supervisors and managers. Once the behavors become habit, the entire team would benefit. Plus, applying it to our personal lives is an excellent idea.

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    1. Thank you so much, Joni. You are right that new supervisors and managers need to learn this approach. Companies and organizations that invest in professional development training for their leaders will reap the benefits.

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  7. The growth mindset is so important in life. We are really pleased that our teenager attends a school that prioritizes this thinking. We have seen them grow a lot in one year as a result. This mindset can prevent us from falling into the blame game which is so damaging to relationships.

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    1. That’s great, Rebecca, and it would be nice if the entire educational system in this country prioritized that aspect during the formative years. We are doing that with our son at home because, unfortunately, some schools are still focusing on SATs—in Illinois, now ACTs—instead.

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  8. Great article and I believe this is a very important piece of business that many people forget about. Some great tips here for those who are leaders of any kind. Just excellent advice. I think another thing which is helpful is to have round tables when there are problems that come up about how something is to be done and a customer complains. Sometimes it can be helpful to actually involve the staff and try to develop an open discussion about how they think the process could be improved. This helps to give them a sense of ownership of the process and also any problems that develop. Very helpful advice. Thank you Edward. Have a great weekend. Joni

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    1. Thank you so much, Joni, for this comment. The round table discussion is an excellent idea, and leaders should be doing more of this. I used to have whiteboard discussions when tackling big problems. I would have an open discussion with my staff to develop options to solve a particular problem or complete a task. The discussion always ended by selecting the best option we came up with and a commitment by the team. Like you said, that gave them a sense of ownership since they were part of the process.

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      1. You are welcome my friend. It was a very important article and I enjoyed hearing what you had to say very much. I too, practiced this round table when I was a manager of a small group, I also made sure we each learned the responsibilities of each member of the team. Thanks Edward I retired early but I think your ideas are so important and certainly worthy of discussion. I am glad Nigel posted the beginning and the link. Good for you my friend. ❤️

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  9. Hi Edward, I live this setting of tasks for employees and failure by leadership to review and finalise every week of my life. It seems to have become the norm in corporates and it is incredibly demoralizing for the staff. A great post.

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    1. Thank you, Robbie, for reading and commenting. It is definitely demoralizing and frustrating at times. Part of the problem, in my opinion, is the lack of training. Companies are selecting unqualified people to be leaders. There is also a debate about the differences between a leader (influencing and caring for the development of others) and a manager (ensuring tasks are executed as directed). I believe managers can be leaders, but they need to get out of the mentality of doing tasks just because the power above wants them done.

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  10. This is such a good post, Ed. You offer several key points about leadership.

    This reminds me of a client I wrote for years ago. I wrote marketing materials for a credit company. The marketing director gave me clear instructions on what she wanted. She was full of praise when I delivered, and said she never had anyone who produced what she wanted. But she made it easy to please her. All I had to do was follow her instructions. I loved working for her.

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  11. I love that the ultimate question was called in the piece — caring vs. results…binary, forced choice? I absolutely believe it needn’t be that way…it’s a call for leadership. Thanks, Edward! 😉

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  12. Without compassion, even money means nothing. Considering it, however, may benefit all in meaningful ways. True growth, in whatever area, can only happen when love and all its descendents are included. Thank you for sharing, Edward! Interesting, indeed. Blessings and light, my friend!

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  13. Excellent post, and I must say that being in a leadership role, the burden falls upon us to set the standard, but the wild swinging of the pendulum is also tough to keep up with.
    You really need to stay nimble, open minded and be ready to pivot on a moments notice in this newer world.

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  14. I believe in compassionate accountability. Lately the trend has been all about the results, which has led to high turnover..it has created a very frustrating work environment. Loved this piece, Edward. Thanks for sharing. 👏👏

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    1. I agree with you; it is very frustrating working in those environments. Sometimes leaders want “results,” but they don’t even know what they are looking for. They are just chasing metrics. Thank you for reading and commenting.

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  16. A very thoughtful post Edward! I especially liked that you mentioned holding ourselves accountable in our personal lives. That is not always an easy task. Being honest with yourself isn’t always as easy as it sounds. It’s important. Self awareness and accountability are something we all should be striving for!

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    1. Thank you, Samantha. You are absolutely right. It’s definitely not an easy task, but it’s one of those things that we just need to work on and improve a little every day. Self-awareness—oh my, how much I struggle in that area.

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  17. Wow, great post, Edward. I like compassionate accountability. I’m pretty good at anchoring on solutions so the part that spoke to me the most was the quote you pulled out for thinking ahead. “The more vividly a leader can envision how they’d like the job done and anticipate obstacles, the easier it will be to communicate that vision to the employee.”

    A great sentence about how to envision and communicate. Thanks for this post!

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    1. You’re welcome, Wynne, and I’m glad that you enjoyed the post. This is one of those areas where leaders need to change their approach to holding people accountable. We are all imperfect human beings, so I’m not sure why we establish rigid standards that we can’t even meet in most cases.

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