AUTHENTIC ACCOUNTABILITY

There is often a lot of excitement around the topic of accountability. In fact, it is quite in vogue. Having an accountability partner is very stylish. In fact, if you’re a leader and don’t make yourself accountable to some group of confidants, you’re not very fashionable. Unfortunately, these notions of accountability, although helpful to some, do not rise to the level of maintaining the trust of leadership. 

True accountability is not a cozy relationship that the leader turns on and off at his own whim. It’s not merely a group of friends who gather for prayer and Bible study over coffee and ask 4 or 5 personal questions. True accountability is systemic. It is built into the structure of the organization. It is part of the organizational DNA and demands the participation and submission of the leader on a regular, formal basis. True accountability cannot be avoided, put off, delayed or shut down. In trustworthy, credible, healthy organizations, it is a predominate feature of the culture. 

By the same token, accountability is not some legalistic tribunal where victims are humiliated and devalued. It is not meant to provide a forum where authorities are “put-in-their-place” by power-hunger, small-minded, authority-grabbing bullies who think they have some perverted right to lord themselves over their leaders. Such individuals undermine the integrity of the organization because they give accountability a bad name. They are part of the problem. Leaders welcome accountability when administered by trusted individuals whom they know have the best interests of both the leader and the organization in mind. But they will be reluctant to freely participate in a system that caters to a mob of co-dependent bullies seeking a chance to flex their fragile egos. 

So what is accountability and how is it expressed in a healthy organization? The following are four basic elements of accountability as expressed in trustworthy entities: 

Answerability 
Checks and Balances 
Structural Integrity 
Impartiality 

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