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Running head: aCCOUNTABILITY & THE LEADER 1

aCCOUNTABILITY & THE LEADER 5

Accountability and The Leader

SGT Brown

Everyone wants to become a leader, however, there are a few that are ready to take the accountability. Accountability means doing what they say they are going to do. Leaders inspire accountability through their ability to accept responsibility before they place blame. According to Graham (2000), “being accountable as a leader is about sticking to your word and honoring your commitments.” It can be personal sacrifice or going that extra mile to deliver on agreed goal. It is beyond just being reliable. The roles and services that a leader performs need accountability to counter emerging challenges. This paper looks at the aspects of accountability and how important they are to them. For example, building trust, performance improvement, confidence inspiration and promotion of development.

It helps them have self-accountability. Accountability defines a leader. It defines how they feel about themselves or how other people feel about them. It makes them overcome fear and accept responsibility for the consequences of their actions. Taking responsibility for your words and actions. A leader is more concerned about what is more right than what others think about them. They act in good faith all times, allowing others to trust and depend on them. Accountability needs the willingness to answer questions from those people affected by their actions. As a person becomes more influential accountability becomes ever more important.

Accountability means walking the walk once you have talked the talk. Basically, meaning what you say, and doing what you say you are going to do. It is about high performance and not fear or stress. It is being willing to have a standard that improves the performance of their organization. It also means having a willingness to be accountable by others. Leaders can admit an error made in any situation. Accountability is the essence of leadership. Leaders must assume this noble responsibility to gain trust from their subjects.

Effective communication between a leader and other people is a sign of responsibility. It makes planning and implementation of ideas easy for the smooth running of an organization. In any organizational structure, communication is the key. When they communicate with their seniors it shows good leadership style. One of the main requirements of a mature society is having leaders who are accountable. Once in office, a leader must first realize their responsibility of accountability. They control and protect it to affect the quality of their subjects.

Change management success needs accountability from a leader. It guides how leaders are prepared, equipped, and supported to adopt the change. This drive organizational success and outcomes. This way, they will be ready for assessments and attend change management pieces of training. The change management skills bought include personal resilience, trust building, forcing clarity, and follow-through. Leaders do not lie to themselves. This accountability is their motivator. They act rightly by sticking to their priorities, so they can remain consisted of set goals and ambitions. Leaders are aware of their boundaries and must be able to prove the boundaries clearly.

Leaders must be responsible if they want to make it through their duties. They are victims and being a victim is the exact opposite of being a leader. Leaders are active. They take an initiative to influence the outcome. Accountability involves keeping track of another person property. For example, money and important documents. Accountable leaders do not blame others when things go wrong. They are willing to answer for the outcomes of their choices they engage in that may affect people. In the case of failure, a leader takes the blame. Therefore, good leaders develop their leadership skills to enable them to be clear about levels of accountability.

Accountability helps a leader manage time well. However, a leader can do away with distracting activities that would otherwise make them lose time and effort unproductively. This implies they value their work, thereby increasing confidence in those they lead. “You cannot talk about leadership without talking about accountability. You cannot separate the two. A leader must delegate accountability and supply the freedom to make decisions, and then be accountable for the results” (Buck, R, 1992).

Accountability builds trust and not fear. The most important result of accountability is trust, which is essential in any relationship. It is not to punish and look for errors and mistakes. They make amends when trust becomes broken.

Conclusion

In summary, holding one self-accountable is a noble task that instantly earns the respect and credibility of those around them. Accountability builds trust, improves performance, promotes ownership and inspires confidence. Good leaders recognize set targets and sanctions in case of non-performance. It also guarantees the actions and decisions taken by leaders about their delivery to people. Which means their decisions and actions are subject to oversight to guarantee that their stated aims become accomplished.

Accountability in a leader is not only in terms of control and integrity of operations but also in terms of performance. Graham (2000) summarizes a leader’s accountability as follows: “the clear definition of their goals and powers and resources committed, planning, directing, supervision and control of their activities, and recording and reporting of transactions to their seniors.”

Reference

Graham, S (2000), Leadership Accountability. The Ethics of a Good Leader. 44(2): 176-233

Buck, R, (1992). The Ethics of Authenticity. Cambridge, Ma: Harvard University Press