You can’t lead effectively without transparency.

You can’t lead at all without accountability.

Can Your Team Members Answer These Eight Questions Confidently?

  1. What do you stand for?
  2. What do we stand for?
  3. Where are we?
  4. Where are we going?
  5. How will we get there—together?
  6. How are we doing?
  7. How am I doing?
  8. What are my opportunities to grow?

If they can’t answer these questions, I have one more for you: Why not?

I once met a CEO who was proud of his strategy. He kept it locked in a drawer. When I asked him why he didn’t share it, he offered, “I don’t want our competitors to know our strategy,” he said, smiling as if he had the secret formula for turning lead into gold.

Unfortunately, his employees didn’t know the strategy either?

It turns out his competitors didn’t need to know it. They ate his lunch in the market. I’m guessing they didn’t lock their strategies in drawers.

Beware When Transparency is Missing

Transparency offers the context we all need for performance.

If transparency is absent from the environment, people grow confused, stressed, or fearful.

There is no path forward to success if people are feeling any of those emotions.

Performance Starts with Accountability

Accountability is the foundation of every thriving culture.

You should start your day by feeling accountable to help. (It starts with you. Does your do match your tell?)

You should reinforce accountability with every single encounter.

It extends to them. Do they know commitment is commitment?

It covers all of them. You can’t have two sets of rules.

Talk about accountability with your team members.

Agree with them on what it means.

And then, use your dozens of encounters and opportunities every single day to reinforce it.

The Bottom-Line for Now:

Transparency is measurable. Accountability is binary. If transparency is low and accountability is turned off, expect to struggle. The good news is you can fix both with some focused, hard leadership work. Don’t wait. Start now.

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