What is “Accountability”? A nine-year old’s answer will amaze you!
It’s almost breathtaking to read this note from a young football player:
Many CEO’s, Executives, as well as Professional and College coaches would struggle to answer this question with as much clarity as young Duece has done here. We know intuitively that accountability is the door to success, but we misperceive accountability as “getting up in one another’s grill” and often avoid it altogether. There is a clear path to accountability, but it doesn’t begin with strength. It begins with weakness.
It’s uncanny that a nine-year-old taps into weakness in his first sentence. Weakness is the beginning and the motivation, with accountability being the end result.
Beginning: Self-knowledge and revelation
To begin the path of accountability we must be known, and our weaknesses known. Not by everyone, but by our team. This requires vulnerability. Leaders must set the tone and go first here. They must tip their hand on their own weaknesses. No one is perfect and if leaders present themselves as perfect, the team will never learn to be vulnerable with one another.
Motivation: We’re in it together
It is in our weakness and vulnerability that we learn to trust each other. You have their back-and they have yours. You give to your team your best effort. They give you theirs. This is not a function of covering our weakness but rather relying on each other. It is in this kind of culture that teammates fight alongside one another and help one another “on every single play” every single day! The avoidance of accountability is the number one complaint employees have of their teams. It is rampant. A culture becomes corrosive when employees or team members feel others are just phoning it in, or worse, checked out altogether.
Result: Accountability to the Highest Standards
Check out Deuce’s next sentence. “It’s holding yourself and OTHERS around you to the highest standards.”
In my estimation, whether it’s in the office or in the athletic arena, 98% of teams hold each other to a “good enough” standard, not the highest standard. Occasionally, especially in an emergency, teams will pull off a superior performance. But very few teams set and hold high standards consistently. Maybe it’s too hard, or people prefer to look after their individual success. Maybe leadership doesn’t model it. Whatever the reason, it ends like this note does: “Without accountability, there is no team”.
Note: Duece Jones-Drew is the son of former NFL star Maurice Jones-Drew. Let’s keep our eyes on Duece – he is a very wise young man!
