Monthly Archives: October 2022

Importance of Balancing Empathy with Accountability as a Leader

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Last night while out running errands with my husband he was explaining how empathetic the leadership was at a vendor organization he has been working with. This made me think about how important empathy is as a leader. My last blog spoke to the need for accountability in solution delivery and last night’s discussion made me think about the importance of balancing accountability with empathy. Some leaders can empathize intuitively, and some leaders must work at how to display empathy. I have compiled some key components of empathy that I hope will help you be more aware of as you grow your leadership skills.

UndErstanding – Do you understand how your team members are perceiving their work assignments? As a leader it is important to take the time to understand how your team members are receiving their assignments and ensure that roadblocks to achieving their assignments are removed. This includes training as well as any distractions they may be facing.

CoMpassion – Your team need to be treated with compassion as they face hurdles both at work as well as in their personal lives. Some team members easily share when they are being faced with situations that are overwhelming but there are also others that will suffer in silence. As a leader it is important to be aware of any changes you may see in behavior and gently probe into the cause while showing compassionate understanding.

ResPonsiveness – As a leader you should never ignore the signs of someone struggling. It is important to react quickly and positively when your team members are showing any sign of distress or discomfort. It is very easy to ignore the early signs because of your workload but they will be there.

Appreciation – Do you show appreciation for both the big wins and small wins of your team? Leaders need to remember that even a small task achieved deserves to be recognized even if only with a smile. It is human nature to want to feel like the effort we put into our work is appreciated by our team and our leadership. Please remember that even the small show of appreciation goes a long way in maintaining the health of your team members.

RecogniTion – This emotional area cannot be underestimated on maintaining a healthy team. You need to remember as a leader that not everyone appreciates public recognition, and some team members thrive on public recognition. It is important that you get to know how your team like to receive recognition in order to not demoralize those that shy away from public displays.

InsigHt – Having the ability to accurately and many times intuitively understand what motivates your team. Motivation comes in many different forms and as a leader having the insight into each team member and what drives them as well as what will demotivate is an essential characteristic for any leader to build in their career growth journey.

SYmpathy – Showing sympathy for other’s misfortunes is not an easy thing to do without coming off superficial, however it is a critical trait for a leader to show sympathy for any loss of your team members. The loss could be people, pets, and property to name a few to be aware of. Having active communications with your team individually will allow them the vehicle to open up about there personal struggles and will allow you an opportunity to show sympathy and any support they may need to get through the emotional journey they face.

In conclusion, a balance of accountability with empathy is an important concept for any manager or leader as they grow their career. Take the time to ensure your team are well cared for and you will reap many successful delivery results through a balance of ACCOUNTABILITY and EMPATHY!

How a Culture of Accountability Impacts Solution Delivery

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Recently I have been thinking about how leadership and culture plays an essential role in our ability to deliver quality solutions.  More importantly how accountability will have a direct impact on our ability to help team members stay engaged and empowered to produce positive results.

There are different accountability chains based on the alignment of project resources.  Specifically, when you look at matrix project reporting structures vs functional project reporting structures you will have different layers of accountability.  The type of project organization structure has a direct impact on the project leader’s ability to influence or drive accountability.

When you do not have a culture of accountability in your organization you will have some of these resultative behaviors:

  1. Morale issues – top performers tend to disengage.
  2. Siloed behavior – you will hear “well my resource manager told me to do this” specifically observed in a matrix organizational structure.
  3. Rescuer behavior – because the person believes they must make up for others not performing their respective roles on the project.
  4. Active disengagement – because the team do not feel empowered to hold each other accountable for results.

From my experience on leading projects in both matrix and functional project structures I have found that it is critical that the project and program leader focus on these key qualities to embed accountability in your solution delivery practices.  This is not an all-inclusive list but rather some key focus areas to drive:

  1. Goal setting – set clear expectations up front and inform the team how they have influence in the team’s ability to be successful by clearly defining what success means.
  2. Empowerment – reinforce with your team that there will be mistakes, and if we as a team own our mistakes, learn from them we will move on and be better for it. This safe environment approach will help your team members embrace their empowerment.
  3. Process adherence – with clearly defined delivery processes established the team have a roadmap on how the overall solution will be delivered.
  4. Encourage continuous improvement – as a leader you need to encourage the team to bring their thoughts and ideas on how to enhance or change processes for better outcomes moving forward.
  5. Team accountability – the team need to understand the goals of the delivery and then hold each other accountable.
  6. Measuring success – the team need to understand how their performance will be measured and how their respective inputs align with the overall delivery success.
  7. Celebrate success – recognition and success are key motivating factors for your team. It cannot be underestimated the major benefits of team morale in simply recognizing key success milestones and as a team celebrating.
  8. Tools and transparency – collaboration and document management tools are essential for your team’s ability to communicate and share key information throughout the delivery. Setting these up early in the delivery cycle and then validating that they are effectively being used is a critical aspect not to be underestimated.

In closing, project and program leaders play a critical role in how accountability drives quality solutions.  Understanding your corporate culture and how you can lead your teams through solution delivery by reinforcing accountability through the solution delivery will lead to successful delivery solutions and help drive your company closer to a culture of accountability.