Leadership Without Excuses: How to Create Accountability and High-Performance (Instead of Just Talking About It)

CONCLUSION

There are three kinds of people. Some people are saints— they never make excuses. Some people are sinners—they always make excuses. Most people are saveables—give them an excuse, and they’ll use it to defend their egos and avoid responsibility. Of course, this excuse making diverts energy and attention away from problem solving and delivering results.

This is why it’s so important for leaders to take excuses out of the system by creating the conditions of accountability: Communicating clear and credible expectations. Creating compelling consequences. Leading conversations grounded in empirical reality.

While they’re pretty much common sense and easy to remember, the conditions of accountability are not easy to put in place. This is ...