Leadership Legacy: Accountability

Being a leader is a tough role. It means striking a balance between celebrating victories as well as being accountable for your failures.

Discussing ways to help new leaders, but not addressing what happened this past week in America would be wrong, particularly because what went wrong is based on a failure of leadership.

Today I am using my voice to discuss what happens when leaders are not held accountable.

When you are a leader and you allow toxic behavior in your workplace and it negatively affects those you serve, you have failed them. 

It is not difficult to find examples of leaders who have participated in or allowed toxic behavior in their organizations. If you haven’t experienced this in your own work place, just turn on the news; you’ll hear a number of examples there. Toxic behavior is a collective label used to cover acts of racism, sexism, ageism, bigotry, inequity, homophobia, classism, elitism, bullying, microaggressions, microinsults, and implicit bias, just to name a few.

So leaders, when you allow toxic behavior by turning a blind eye or not addressing it, get ready for the ramifications from the people who have been on the receiving end of that toxic behavior. These people will eventually have had enough of the damaging behavior and demand change and accountability from you.

Just like a kettle that has been on the fire too long, it begins to whistle loudly because it was not heard when it made a low whistle, and now it could possibly explode if ignored. So are the ramifications of the voiced concerns, and fears of a people whose leaders, who are there to protect them, but instead have failed to address toxic behaviors.

Leaders: in your legacy it is great to celebrate your wins, but what will those that you serve have to say about the issues you failed to address?