Accountability Redefined

By: Maureen Corbett

Today in our intern meeting, I learned of an author I've never heard of before named Patrick Lencioni. In his book, The Advantage: Organizational Health Model, he spends a good portion of his time discussing the crucial role of accountability when building a cohesive leadership team. He goes on to explain that successful teams are built on trust and respect, and accountability comes hand in hand with that.

Teams are only successful when every member believes in each other's capabilities. What's best about working in teams is that you can combine the strengths of one person with the strengths of another to accomplish a task that might otherwise have been impossible when working individually. It involves collaboration and dedication to a shared goal, and when that goal is achieved, all are successful. In order to hold team members accountable for their actions to obtain this success, a certain level of trust must first be established. By trusting someone to complete a task, you are endorsing your belief in their ability to succeed.

What comes to mind for me personally is when I was recently assigned the role of project managing the Career Fair Expo for Purdue's Career Week. This is a huge responsibility for me, and is the largest project to date that I have had to work on. This is also the highlighted event of Career Week, which means a lot of pressure comes along with making it successful. This pressure could easily intimidate me, but I have to keep reminding myself that if my superiors didn't think I was qualified for the job, they wouldn't have assigned me with this project. I need to take this as a sign of their respect: they believe I am capable of pulling through for them. When someone has high expectations for you to succeed, it can be very stressful at times. But by holding me accountable for this event's success, I know that I am being respected by my team when they place their trust in my abilities.

And when I know that, how can I not succeed?