Why is accountability important in leadership? What are the five bad habits that you should look out for and improve on?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Accountability in leadership<\/a> is important to being respected by your employees and fellow leaders. However, many leaders tend to make these mistakes\u2014even if they don’t notice it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These five bad habits all relate to avoiding accountability<\/a> in leadership: making excuses<\/a> for your poor behavior and refusing to take responsibility for your actions<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n This bad habit is also known as \u201cpassing the buck.\u201d <\/strong>If you\u2019re a leader, \u201cpassing the buck\u201d may mean trying to entirely blame your subordinates for their poor performance when, as the person in charge, you should be taking responsibility<\/a> for at least a part of the failure. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Often, leaders are drawn to blaming others for their mistakes because they can\u2019t bear the thought of appearing flawed<\/strong>. They think admitting they\u2019re imperfect and mess up from time to time will make them look weak. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In reality, the opposite is true. Admitting that you\u2019ve made a mistake takes strength and courage. It\u2019s a humbling gesture that people generally respect. In contrast, if you blame others for your missteps, you\u2019ll lose the respect of those around you. You\u2019ll seem disloyal, devious, and willing to sacrifice others for your own gain. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Healthier Behavior: <\/strong>Fully accept the blame for things that are your fault and tell your team members that you\u2019re doing so. Show them that you\u2019re willing to be accountable for your actions<\/a>. You\u2019ll gain respect in the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Things from our past undeniably affect who we are today. For example, if you have low self-esteem<\/a>, it may be because your parents didn\u2019t praise you enough. If you struggle to interact with or respect authority figures, it may be because your parents were overly controlling. <\/p>\n\n\n\n However,<\/strong> you can\u2019t use the troubles<\/a> of your past to absolve yourself of responsibility for bad behavior in the present.<\/strong> Although people may be sympathetic towards your past struggles, they\u2019ll still question why you think it\u2019s appropriate to take them out on other people in the form of bad behavior. If you continue to do so, they\u2019ll lose respect for you. <\/p>\n\n\n\n For example, imagine you get criticized by a superior for being overly aggressive with your team members. You believe you\u2019ve developed this aggressive aspect of your personality because your father was frequently aggressive during your childhood, and you explain this to your boss. <\/p>\n\n\n\n You might think that your boss will be so sympathetic to your plight that they\u2019ll give you a \u201cfree pass\u201d to keep acting harmfully. After all, your aggression isn\u2019t really <\/em>your fault. In reality, your boss will probably express sorrow that you were treated that way, but question why you haven\u2019t taken steps to deal with your past in a healthy way. Ultimately, your troubled relationship with your father isn\u2019t your coworkers\u2019 problem. Why should they suffer because of it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Healthier Behavior: <\/strong>Try to develop a healthier relationship with your past and lessen its impact on your present behavior. For instance, you could talk to a therapist about what you\u2019ve been through and how you can move past it. This isn\u2019t by any means a quick or easy fix, but it\u2019s a necessary step to take if you want to stop sabotaging your present and future. Likewise, consistently remind yourself that being treated badly in the past doesn\u2019t give you an excuse to behave badly in the present. If your past does drive you to act in a destructive way, take accountability, apologize, and work to do better in the future. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This habit involves trying to excuse your bad behavior by blaming it on an innate personality trait<\/strong> that you can\u2019t control. For example, you may try to excuse getting angry at others by saying, \u201cSorry I shouted at you, I have a naturally quick temper.\u201d You may try to shirk responsibility for lateness by saying, \u201cSorry, I\u2019m just really bad at time management. It\u2019s who I am.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Some people genuinely believe that their poor behavior is an unshakeable part of their personality. They may have been acting in this negative way for so long that they can\u2019t imagine a different way of living. For instance, tardiness may have started in childhood with being consistently late for school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, in most cases, change is possible. We\u2019re not born lazy, tardy, or rude\u2014we\u2019ve learned these behaviors over our lifetimes. This means that we can unlearn them, too. If you refuse to do this, people are going to lose respect for you<\/strong>. They\u2019re going to see you as someone who\u2019s too lazy or too uncaring to bother to improve themselves. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Healthier Behavior: <\/strong>If you find yourself excusing a harmful behavior because you think you\u2019re irredeemably bad at something, challenge this thought. Honestly consider whether you\u2019re actually <\/em>unable to change this behavior, or if you\u2019re just unwilling to try. If the latter is the case, make a commitment<\/a> to changing. It won\u2019t be easy, but people will respect you for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Many self-help manuals laud the importance of \u201cliving authentically\u201d: accepting and letting loose the \u201creal you.\u201d In theory, living authentically<\/a> isn\u2019t a bad thing. Expressing your real self<\/a> is much healthier\u2014emotionally and mentally\u2014than pretending to be someone you\u2019re not. However, some leaders take this principle a little too far. They start to use \u201cauthenticity\u201d as a justification for their bad behavior.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Leaders who adopt this bad habit become fiercely protective of their right to behave badly. They believe that their harmful habits should be celebrated because they\u2019re a part of their \u201cauthentic self\u201d\u2014a part of what makes them uniquely special. In their eyes, abandoning their poor behaviors would be disingenuous and disloyal to themselves, so they refuse to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For example, an executive Goldsmith worked with refused to give his subordinates praise because he believed that praising people just wasn\u2019t \u201chim.\u201d He argued that giving his colleagues encouragement would make him feel like a \u201cphony.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n People who engage in this habit become so focused on protecting their own feelings\u2014specifically, their feelings of being authentic and true to themselves\u2014that they stop caring about how their behavior makes other people<\/em> feel. This selfishness and lack of care for others severely harm their reputation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Healthier Behavior: <\/strong>Stop seeing the idea of changing your bad behavior through the lens of \u201chow will doing this make me feel? Will it make me feel like a phony?\u201d Remember that your feelings aren\u2019t the only ones that matter. Instead, think \u201chow will changing my behavior make others <\/em>feel? Is remaining \u201cauthentic\u201d to myself worth the damage that I\u2019m currently doing to both other people and my own reputation?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Many successful people deeply struggle with the idea of apologizing.<\/strong> They find saying sorry painful and humiliating, because they think it makes them look weak. They believe people will look down on them if they admit they\u2019re fallible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, Goldsmith argues that apologizing actually puts you in a strong <\/em>position because it gets people on your side. It\u2019s the first step in encouraging people to forgive you for your past transgressions. It helps both parties to overcome the hurt of the past and move forward together. Apologizing also makes people respect you more. It demonstrates that despite your success, you\u2019re humble enough to recognize that you\u2019re not above accepting accountability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In contrast, if you don\u2019t apologize for your wrongdoings, the people who\u2019ve suffered because of your actions will become bitter.<\/strong> They\u2019ll think you don\u2019t care about them or their feelings. You\u2019ll gain a reputation for being callous, unfeeling, and arrogant enough to think that your harmful actions don\u2019t matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Healthier Behavior: <\/strong>When you\u2019ve done something wrong, apologize to the person or people affected by your behavior. Don\u2019t let your pride get in the way of making amends. If you do, you\u2019ll only upset people further and damage your reputation. We\u2019ll explore apologizing and its importance further in Chapter 8.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Why is accountability important in leadership? What are the five bad habits that you should look out for and improve on? Accountability in leadership is important to being respected by your employees and fellow leaders. However, many leaders tend to make these mistakes\u2014even if they don’t notice it. These five bad habits all relate to avoiding accountability in leadership: making excuses for your poor behavior and refusing to take responsibility for your actions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":46730,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,34,14],"tags":[478],"class_list":["post-47761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-career","category-communication","category-management","tag-what-got-you-here-wont-get-you-there","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"\nBad Habit #1: Blaming Others for Your Mistakes<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Bad Habit #2: Blaming Your Past Struggles for Your Current Bad Behavior<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Bad Habit #3: Making Your Personality the Excuse for Your Bad Behavior<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Bad Habit #4: Refusing to Change Under the Guise of \u2018Authenticity\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Bad Habit #5: Never Apologizing<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n