Live: UNLOCKING THE POWER OF SELF-ACCOUNTABLE LEADERSHIP

  MOMENT OF TRUTH

“John, you’re messing with my business. We’re losing people after they’ve attended your leadership workshops”.

I was in conversation with the chairman of the South African arm of a giant global corporate.

There was nothing for it, but to tell the truth, and so I did; “You’re losing people because they’re becoming self-accountable. They’re finding their voices and unleashing their passions. For the first time, they’re realising the extent to which they’ve been herded and pressured into conforming. Now that they’re unshackling from their self-limiting identities and becoming who you need them to be, your leadership team is trying to contain them, and they’re rebelling. The culture of your organisation is unable to support the people you need—and so they’re leaving.”

There’s an Afrikaans saying— ‘Die vis stink van die kop af’. It suggests that ‘organisational rot’ starts at the very top. 

THE PRICE OF IGNORANCE

So often, leaders fail to develop the people on their teams, which means that they remain stressed, anxious and accountable. Their people, in the meantime, remain disempowered, frustrated and disillusioned—or they unlock the power of self-accountability, and leave.

As diplomatically as possible, I now guide them—the leaders—towards the realisation that unless they gift themselves the time to become self-accountable, they’ll continue to lose their best people. 

HOW COULD I NOT HAVE KNOWN THIS? 

It might have looked impressive to others, but deep down I knew I’d been side-stepping becoming fully self-accountable. Of course I had, because it would have made me vulnerable. Just like most other people out there, I hate being vulnerable.
 

But yes, I finally got it, that if I was to make the difference I was so passionate about making, then it was time to do what, up until then, I'd resisted with everything I had. I'd need to become properly vulnerable—by becoming fully self-accountable. 

Personally, I'd been fearful of putting myself out there—of risking being ridiculed, or, worse still, rejected. Sure, I’d done it before—often—but neither on the scale, nor in ‘the way’, that I knew I'd need to.  It was only once I'd faced up to the fact that I wasn't really the role model I thought I was, that I took my leap of faith, and failed, again and again. 

I quickly learned that becoming successfully self-accountable would be a staggeringly challenging journey. It meant that I'd not only have to face up to the fear of failure, but that I'd actually have to fail—fall flat on my face—often, until I was tolerant of it. Only then could I see, reach for, and experience, the infinity of possibility that was out there.

NOW IT'S YOUR TURN... 

If you’re scared as heck, but prepared to ‘face the fear and do what YOU have resisted with everything you've got’, then join us on our 'Unlocking the power of self-accountable leadership’ workshop. Let’s get it done, together. It’s just so much easier when you’re not stepping into the unknown, alone.