Leadership Isn't For Cowards: How to Drive Performance by Challenging People and Confronting Problems

Chapter 18

What Kinds of Responsibility Are You Taking?

Let’s face it; you have those times when you look across the conference-room landscape at your followers and think, “Didn’t we already have this conversation? I thought I was clear about my expectations! Can’t we just solve the problem and move on?” If we are being honest, then we must acknowledge that there are times when we really don’t know what we are doing. We have great intentions, great plans, and then—Bam!—the execution is lousy. Or we have great intentions, but no plan and no execution whatsoever. When you ask questions about the lack of execution—Why so slow? What happened to the original goal? What is the problem?—there are probably times when you get back some kind of nondescript noise that sounds like Charlie Brown’s teacher. Sometimes, you just don’t know what to do to get things done.

If you are very fortunate, you have a perfect team that owns its mistakes, changes direction, and then accomplishes results. For the rest of you, this chapter is written to assist you in getting your followers to take responsibility. As we have previously discussed, responsibility is not about looking for the bad guy or seeking to make anyone feel bad. However, it’s also not about being so worried about upsetting our followers that we don’t ask the tough questions.

I have been fortunate enough to hear many leaders talk to their followers. The best ones are tough without diminishing anyone’s self-esteem or self-respect. It is important ...