• Companies ignore or deny the problem.
• They dodge responsibility.
• They blame others.
• They wait for some higher power to provide orders.
• They focus on protecting themselves and ‘cover their tail’.
• They adopt the wait and watch approach and see if the problem will go away on its own.

At many organizations, “accountability” really means “blame.”

People only hear about accountability when something sinks, blows up or crashes. When everything is great, no one asks who’s accountable for the success. It is a personal choice to rise above one’s circumstances and demonstrate the ownership necessary for achieving desired results. Accountability includes success, not just failure.

All too often people view unhappy circumstances as accidents of chance; yet when they find themselves in more pleasant circumstances, they automatically take credit for a job well done.

People who are imbued with a spirit of accountability will:

• Ask for constructive criticism and candid feedback.
• Demand the truth even when it hurts and face facts, no matter how scary or nasty.
• Don’t waste time or energy on things you cannot control or influence.
• Commit yourself 100% to what you are doing, and if your commitment begins to wane, strive to rekindle it.
• Take full ownership of their work and its results.
• Enjoy responsibility for what happens.
• Always ask yourself, “What else can I do?”

When people lack courage – think of the timid lion in The Wizard of Oz – they don’t fail to see problems; they deliberately refuse to see problems out of fear. What they can’t see, they can’t solve. Therefore, in their cowardly minds, they are not responsible or accountable. Now, think how laughable their evasions and excuses really are. Instead, do as the cowardly lion did: Get some courage.

People in an organization who see a problem and take responsibility for fixing it are golden. People who reject accountability do nothing. If you have ever seen yourself as the victim of a terrible injustice, reflect on that experience and ask yourself:

• What did you know to be true and that you simply closed your eyes to?
• If you were in the same circumstances again, what would you change?
• What warnings were flashing?
• What did the experience teach you that you could have used but did not?
• Why were you responsible? What did you commit or omit?

How do you know a problem when you see it? The most dangerous unresolved problems organizations face are: Poor communication, people development, empowerment, misalignment, entitlement, work and personal life imbalance, poor performance, senior management development, and cross-functional strife.

Exercise your leadership, wisdom and prudence to distinguish what needs to be done from what does not. Wasting time on unnecessary action takes away time that you need to spend acting effectively.

• “Stay engaged” – Be awake and focus on the possible.
• “Persist” – Hang in there stubbornly until you have it right.
• “Think differently” – Look for strange and shockingly different points of view.
• “Create new linkages” – Build new and unfamiliar relationships.
• “Take initiative” – Go first; don’t wait for someone else.
• “Stay conscious” – Get involved and stay involved.

Leaders must apply these principles to themselves and to their organizations. Intervention, itself, is risky. Leaving the team to figure things out for itself is important, but it can also be a way of shirking leadership responsibility. 

Try to fulfill this checklist of leadership characteristics:

• Act accountably, the way you want your staff members to act.
• Tolerate occasional “below the line” statements. Recognize that your team members sometimes have to deal with frustration. 
• Know a dodge when you see it and an evasion when you hear it.
• Make people accountable in order to empower them.