Article

10 Things All Leaders Need to Do to Improve Accountability

June 4, 2024

Strategies for Leaders to Foster Accountability and Drive Team Success

strategies for leaders to foster accountability and drive team success.

Accountability is more crucial than ever for driving team success and achieving organizational goals. Leaders play a pivotal role in fostering a culture of accountability, ensuring that team members understand their responsibilities and are committed to meeting them. By implementing effective strategies and maintaining a transparent, fair, and supportive environment, leaders can significantly enhance accountability within their teams. Here are ten essential practices that all leaders need to adopt to improve accountability and boost overall performance.


1. Set Clear Expectations

Leaders must ensure that every team member understands their roles, responsibilities, and the standards they need to meet. This clarity helps avoid confusion and sets a solid foundation for accountability. Performance goals should be specific, measurable, and realistic with clear deadlines.


2. Stop Avoiding Tough Conversations

Avoiding difficult conversations can lead to bigger problems down the line. Leaders need to address performance issues head-on, prepare thoroughly for these conversations, and focus on solutions rather than problems. Open and honest communication can prevent misunderstandings and improve relationships.


3. Give Regular Feedback

Regular feedback is crucial for maintaining accountability. Leaders should establish a routine for check-ins and updates, providing continuous feedback on performance. This helps employees understand where they stand and what adjustments they need to make.


4. Recognize Great Performance

Acknowledging and rewarding good performance can significantly boost morale and motivation. Leaders should make a conscious effort to recognize and praise employees' achievements, ensuring that appreciation is specific and tied to the behaviors and outcomes they want to see repeated.


5. Stop Being Too Lenient

While being liked is nice, it's not the job of a leader to be overly lenient. Leaders must be firm and fair, holding everyone to their commitments and ensuring that all team members are accountable for their performance.


6. Stop Being Too Harsh

On the flip side, being overly critical can create a culture of fear and resentment. Leaders should focus on constructive feedback, understanding the reasons behind performance shortfalls, and fostering a supportive environment where employees feel safe to take risks and share their thoughts.


7. Model Accountability

Leaders need to set an example by holding themselves accountable. This means meeting their own commitments, admitting mistakes, and demonstrating personal responsibility. By modeling accountability, leaders can inspire their team to do the same.


8. Create a Culture of Openness

Fostering a culture of openness and honesty encourages team members to share their views, give each other feedback, and discuss problems openly. This transparency builds trust and helps the team work together more effectively.


9. Avoid Micromanaging

Micromanaging can stifle creativity and demotivate employees. Leaders should delegate responsibilities, give team members autonomy, and focus on higher-level strategic tasks. Clear expectations and regular check-ins can help ensure that work is on track without the need for constant supervision.


10. Stop Playing Favorites

Fairness is key to maintaining trust and accountability within a team. Leaders should ensure that all team members are held to the same standards and that recognition and feedback are distributed equitably. Avoiding favoritism helps build a cohesive and motivated team.


Improving accountability is about creating a transparent, fair, and supportive environment where everyone understands their responsibilities and is committed to meeting them. By implementing these ten practices, leaders can enhance accountability and drive better performance across their teams.


Discover the transformative power of Dr. Rich Hagberg's leadership coaching, rooted in data-driven analysis. With decades of experience, Dr. Hagberg excels in enhancing self-awareness, balancing strengths and weaknesses, and fostering effective decision-making. His tailored approach helps founders build strong teams and navigate growth challenges seamlessly.


Ready to elevate your leadership skills and drive your startup to success? 


Learn more about Dr. Rich Hagberg's coaching services or contact him today to start your journey.

share this

Related Articles

Related Articles

July 6, 2025
Reprint from Thought Economics, A Journey of Intellectual Capital
June 9, 2025
Startup founders represent the ultimate paradox: celebrated for their innovative brilliance yet notoriously susceptible to failure. In reality, the difference between astronomical success and dismal failure boils down to a surprisingly consistent set of behaviors and personality traits. Drawing from extensive 360 feedback studies, personality assessments, and deep insights from Founders Keepers, we've unraveled exactly what separates winners from losers in the startup world. Myth-busting: Genius Jerks Rarely Prevail A common myth persists that successful founders must be narcissistic, domineering, and abrasive—the stereotypical "genius jerk." Yet, our rigorous analysis of data from 122 founders, comparing the top performers (at least 10X returns) with bottom performers (zero returns), decisively shatters this myth. Successful founders, contrary to popular belief, rarely succeed because of egocentric ruthlessness. Instead, they thrive due to their extraordinary adaptability, relationship-building skills, disciplined execution, and deep personal grounding. Meanwhile, unsuccessful founders often implode because of their rigidity, isolation, impulsivity, and inability to truly lead teams. Adaptability: The Endless Pursuit of Product-Market Fit Successful founders understand one critical truth: product-market fit isn't a finish line; it’s a continuous process. They show an exceptional ability to: Remain open to input, eagerly soliciting and integrating team feedback. Effectively manage resistance, empathetically addressing team concerns. Skillfully create buy-in, building commitment through transparency and genuine engagement. In contrast, unsuccessful founders typically fail due to rigidity. They stubbornly anchor themselves to outdated strategies, ignore valuable feedback, and react defensively to challenges, eventually becoming roadblocks in their own companies. Relationship Building: From Loners to Leaders A pivotal distinction lies in the ability to work effectively through others. Successful founders consistently excel in empowering their teams. They: Delegate effectively, granting autonomy while clearly defining expectations. Maintain trust through consistent behavior, integrity, and transparency. Develop robust emotional intelligence, adeptly managing conflict and strengthening team cohesion. Unsuccessful founders, on the other hand, struggle profoundly with delegation. Their chronic micromanagement erodes trust and morale, creating environments of fear and resentment. They often isolate themselves, failing to build genuine relationships, thus missing critical insights and innovations their teams could provide. Execution: Discipline Over Charisma Execution—arguably the most underrated pillar of startup leadership—truly separates winners from losers. Successful founders meticulously: Set clear, measurable, and achievable goals. Follow through relentlessly, holding themselves and others accountable. Create robust systems and processes to scale effectively. Conversely, unsuccessful founders typically suffer from chronic disorganization and impulsivity. Their inability to prioritize, constant pivots without strategic clarity, and poor follow-through generate chaos and stifle growth. Personal Grounding: Stability Amidst Chaos Perhaps most counterintuitively, successful founders exhibit deep personal grounding—a trait seldom highlighted in sensational startup narratives. They: Demonstrate emotional resilience, remaining composed under extreme stress. Exhibit patience, tolerating ambiguity and uncertainty with grace. Maintain optimistic yet realistic perspectives, avoiding destructive cycles of anxiety or panic. Unsuccessful founders, however, often spiral under pressure. Their volatility and emotional reactivity exacerbate crises, leading to poor decision-making and destructive interpersonal dynamics. Self-Awareness: The Hidden Driver of Success Underpinning all these traits is profound self-awareness—arguably the most critical competency of all. Successful founders consistently seek self-improvement, humbly recognizing their weaknesses and proactively addressing them. They actively solicit honest feedback, never fearing the vulnerability required for growth. Unsuccessful founders, conversely, often display a tragic lack of self-awareness. Their denial of shortcomings, defensiveness to feedback, and unwillingness to evolve ultimately doom their startups. Real-World Wisdom: Voices from the Trenches Beyond the data, the human stories captured in 360 feedback illustrate these differences vividly: Successful founders receive praise like, “He constantly solicits input, adapts swiftly, and builds deep trust. His humility makes everyone want to follow him.” Unsuccessful founders, by contrast, earn harsh critiques: “He ignores input, reacts defensively, and insists on controlling every detail. The team is disengaged and demoralized.” These narratives underscore the simple but powerful truth that the best founders aren't isolated geniuses—they’re skilled leaders who build environments where everyone can thrive. The Path Forward: Turning Insights into Action If you're a founder, investor, or leader within the startup ecosystem, confront these truths head-on. Assess yourself and your organization rigorously: Are you truly adaptable, or merely superficially agile? Are you empowering your team, or stifling their potential? Are you executing with discipline, or flailing with chaos? Are you grounded emotionally, or reactive and volatile? Are you genuinely self-aware, or defensively delusional? Final Thoughts Ultimately, founder success isn’t about flashy charisma or ruthless ambition. It’s about a disciplined commitment to growth—both personal and organizational. Embrace adaptability, deepen your self-awareness, and master the art of leadership grounded in trust and integrity. This is not merely good advice—it’s the proven difference between a startup’s spectacular success and its avoidable failure.  What traits do you see defining successful and unsuccessful founders in your experience? Let's discuss!
ALL ARTICLES