Why Accountability Feels So Hard for Leaders

Peer accountability is one of the hardest topics when working with senior leadership teams.  When I ask, “How good are we at holding each other accountable?” the responses are often honest… and familiar…

·      We would, but we are just so busy with our own work.

·      Not sure why the leader isn’t addressing it… have you spoken to them? Oh no.

·      Their work is very specialised, I’m not sure where to start.

·      We don’t really make firm commitments… we stay in our own lanes.

·      We are all under pressure, I can hardly do my own role, let alone hold someone else accountable.

These are good people.  Committed leaders.  And yet, accountability between peers is often missing.

So why does it feel so hard?

Part of it is pressure.  When everything feels urgent, accountability can feel like “extra work” rather than core work.  Part of it is ambiguity.  If commitments aren’t clear, or outcomes aren’t shared, it’s difficult to step in with confidence.  And part of it is discomfort.  Holding a peer accountable carries risk of damaging the relationship, of overstepping, or simply getting it wrong.

So, teams default to something quieter: I’ll focus on my piece, and trust others will do theirs.

But that’s not accountability.That’s coexistence.

A definition I often share comes from The Advantage by Patrick Lencioni:  “To hold someone accountable is to care about them enough to risk having them blame you for pointing out their deficiencies.”

When accountability is reframed as care, something shifts. 

• It moves from judgement to support.

• From criticism to commitment.

• From “calling someone out” to “having their back”.

I worked with a leadership team recently where this landed strongly.  One executive realised that by not stepping in, he wasn’t protecting the relationship, he was letting the team down.  That insight opened up a different conversation:

• What does peer accountability look like for us?

• How would it help us perform better?

• Where do we start?

The first conversations were a bit clunky…a bit uncomfortable…but they started.  And over time, something important shifted.

Performance lifted, not because people were being policed, but because expectations were clearer and shared.

Trust strengthened, because people knew their colleagues cared enough to step in.

Commitments became more realistic, because they were spoken about, not silently assumed.

 Accountability didn’t become another layer of pressure, it became part of how they worked.

That’s the shift.

Thriving teams don’t rely on the leader to hold accountability alone.  They hold each other.  Not perfectly.  Not all the time.  But consistently enough to make a difference.

And it starts with a simple reframe:  Accountability isn’t about catching someone out.It’s about caring enough to step in.