Demonstrating accountability as a leader

- Recently, I was keynoting at a Global Leadership Conference for a Fortune 500 company. As the CEO was introducing the speaker before me, he made some remarks that he later learned had a racially insensitive connotation. Before I got up to speak that afternoon, he asked me if he could have a minute to address his comments. He apologized to the group and took ownership for not knowing that his comments were insensitive and had a racial overtone. It became a teachable moment for the 350 leaders that were in the room that even CEOs don't always get it right. And when they don't, they should immediately own up to it. The response was extremely positive and I heard leaders commenting later that the CEO's actions set a tone and gave them permission to do the same back in their departments. This is what demonstrating accountability looks like. And if more leaders acted like this, our workplaces would be much more welcoming and productive, and I might be out of a job, but since I'm still staying quite busy, working with organizations on increasing leadership effectiveness, let me share five behaviors for demonstrating accountability as a leader that I've seen make a difference in creating a more positive work environment. They include one, be consistent. Two, take ownership, which is what I just mentioned in my example. Three, make sound decisions. Four, provide feedback. And five, communicate effectively. To get started, take a minute to rate yourself on a scale of one to five, one being not effective at all and five being very effective. So rate yourself on how effectively you demonstrate each of these five behaviors.