Why all leaders, including ourselves, need to be held accountable.
Leadership accountability. It’s something we want for everyone else, but rarely for ourselves. In our leadership Cohorts this month we’ve been talking about the six different groups of people everyone needs in their own personal support network and there’s one big category that often sits empty - the leadership accountability partner.
The idea of an accountability partner is not new in church circles. For decades I’ve been taught that the solution to my own lack of focus or dedication to Bible reading, church attendance or scripture study was to “find myself an accountability partner.” Giving someone the explicit permission to probe into my habits, time management, or self-discipline and then allowing them to honestly tell me when I was falling short would be the answer to my motivation problems. Though undeniably uncomfortable for both parties, it works. So well, in fact, the idea of finding an accountability partner is also very common when it comes to sticking to your diet, managing your finances, or training for a marathon. Having trouble staying on the right path? Get yourself an accountability partner and those extra set of eyes and their unfiltered truth will get you back on track. When it comes to staying on the straight and narrow, whether that’s with food, book study, or money, we accept accountability as a life best practice.
And yet, when it comes to our own leadership, we often hesitate to put significant leadership accountability practices into place. “It’s hard enough to lead as it is,” we think to ourselves. “The last thing I need is someone looking over my shoulder and telling me where I fall short.” But that’s exactly what every leader should want for themselves, and the humble posture every organization should want their leaders to have. I’d go so far as to say, especially in faith-based organizations, it should be a job requirement. Let me be clear, I’m not talking about simple financial or project management accountability. Verifying that money is being spent appropriately and that work is completed on time is incredibly important to every organization, but those should be a part of the standard operating system. What I’m talking about is accountability for the soft leadership skills - attitude towards those different than you or who disagree with you, the tone of voice you use, the implicit biases we all have, how we resolve conflict, sometimes even things like the literal physical posture we have in meetings. Great leaders know that these soft skills speak as much to our overall leadership effectiveness as our ability to get work done. In fact, they are often more important because they affect how we interact with others and in the long run, correlate with our overall success as a leader. The lack of those soft skills can also be an indicator of trouble under the surface-heart issues that can ruin our leadership reputation and our testimony as a person of faith.
I know leadership accountability is important because I’ve been on both sides of strong and weak leadership accountability. When I first stepped into leadership, I was lucky enough to have a mature, experienced leader serving alongside me. She offered to be my guide and mentor, serving as my leadership accountability partner for over two years. After every team meeting, as we walked away or drove back to our own homes, she would debrief me on how she felt it went, staying specifically focused on my effectiveness as a leader. Often she gave me the encouragement I needed to keep going after I thought a conversation had not gone well or the goal had not been met. But more importantly, she often held a mirror up to my face and told me the hard truth I needed to hear - that my tone had been too harsh, that I looked at my watch too often, that I wasn’t as clear as I thought I had been, that my lack of taking notes made it seem like I didn’t take a suggestion seriously, or that I needed to change how I was sitting in my seat so I looked more engaged. She recommended next steps based on my growth areas - send a clarifying email, pay better attention, extend more compassion, or call and apologize to that teammate. It was often hard to stay humble and continue to learn about where I’d fallen short. It was “ironing sharpening iron,” a noisy, uncomfortable, sometimes heated process. But when it was over, I was better for it. I became a healthier, stronger, far more impactful leader than I ever could have been without her. Her accountability set me on a leadership journey that I like to think, makes me a more self-aware, humble, and effective leader in the long run. And the idea of leadership accountability is personal because I’ve also been on the other side of the table, in a place where a leader did something inappropriate and I had a front row seat to see whether the accountability practices in place within the organization were real or just lip service. Twice in my almost three decades of professional life, I have had an incident where a supervisor treated me in a way that was professionally inappropriate. While a hand was never placed on me, in both cases the tone, language use, overall message and physical posture was clearly out of line. In both cases, I was compelled by my peers and witnesses to report the incident. I will admit to hesitancy in reporting because in organizations where leadership accountability is not fully embraced, there are often repercussions for those who speak up. But in both cases, I did, with two different results. In the first case, the organizational reaction was swift, strong and protective of me while appropriately punishing of the offender. When they said there was no tolerance of harassment or unhealthy leadership behavior, they meant it. Even though it created paperwork and required hard conversations, they knew that leadership accountability is the bedrock strong teams, businesses, ministries, and even armies are built on. In the other case, things did not go as well. This leader continued to serve in the same role, with no retraining or hard, honest conversations. My concerns were noted, then filed away in case they were needed in the future. No changes to leadership accountability practices or oversight. Even with open talk amongst the staff of other uncomfortable interactions with this leader, no attempts were made to gather additional information or connect dots to other incidents. I suppose someone could make the argument that these kind of concerns are “personal” issues every person needs to address within their own heart or leadership development journey. But in reply I would argue that the kind of leaders who have these kind of dangerous leadership or personality gaps are organizational weak points that we ignore at our own peril, especially in faith organizations where our standard should not be just what is “professional,” but what is “morally upright” and “Christ-like.”
It is ironic then, to be writing this piece the same day the report on the duplicity and corrupt leadership of Ravi Zacharias was released. His sexual misconduct is sickening, especially his use of faith language to manipulate and groom his victims. But aside from the accounts of his terrible behavior outside of his ministry’s property, what fascinated me the most was reading the accounts in the report of his interactions with his staff and employees. The investigation details his rage and weaponization of faith language against those who questioned his actions or requested explanation of his behavior. Staff who raised concerns were sidelined, removed from responsibility and professionally shamed. The red flags were everywhere and the proverbial writing was on the wall that something was not right, and yet the majority of staff and employees allowed Ravi to continue his toxic leadership practices, and as we now know, his morally reprehensible personal behaviors, by simply not speaking up, not investigating, and fully trusting someone who was sometimes obviously lying to them. In doing so, the entire ministry became complicit in his misdeeds, a fact they are now very painfully aware of. I give them a huge amount of credit for owning their part in the pain that was caused, but the damage has been done. Even with the efforts they are putting forth to make restitution and move forward, it’s hard to imagine the ministry will survive. Everything he touched is now tainted. The ripples of his sin will reverberate through countless other ministries who aligned with his and we can’t even begin to fathom the damage that has been done to the reputation of the universal church and the shadow it casts on every leader who shares the same faith he so loudly professed. This is what lack of leadership accountability looks like. This is the damage it does. Left unchecked, it is a natural tendency for leaders to grow more prideful, more isolated, less tolerant of those who would question our authority or challenge our behavior. I have felt this tug within my own heart as a leader. It lives in all of us because it is our sin nature. As it grows, it becomes harder to control, which is why accountability is so important at every stage of our leadership journey. These leadership sins start small, in the soft skills, in our conversations with co-workers who disagree with us, in the meetings in the conference room where questions are not welcome, in the use of Biblical language to support only our own perspective or agenda, in our own anger or pride or how we talk behind closed doors. These tiny seeds find purchase in organizations with weak evaluation processes, lack of oversight or 360-reviews of high level leaders, poor levels of gender or race diversity on decision making teams, or team cultures that excuse the use of inappropriate language, subtle intimidation tactics, the sidelining of those who do not share the popular or easy opinion, or unchecked anger.
The devastating report on Ravi Zacharias should be a warning to us all. THIS is what lack of leadership accountability looks like. We should want leadership accountability and demand it at every level of our faith ministries. We should actively seek leadership accountability partners in our own lives, even if it’s uncomfortable and extra work. And we should do these things not because we fear the destruction of our organization or our own leadership reputation, but because we are commanded and compelled to love as Jesus loved, and lead as Jesus led - and our sinful nature makes that impossible without accountability.
