CHAPTER 8
How to Build an Accountable Team

As we explored in Chapter 5, teams are critical to the success of organizations. However, based on the research presented, most teams are seen as being mediocre. You therefore have a tremendous opportunity to set yourself apart by committing to build a team that demonstrates accountability and sets the tone for other teams in your organization. The good news is there are some proven steps you can take to drive success. Once again, we will use the four terms of the leadership contract to guide your efforts in building a truly accountable team (see Figure 8.1).

The figure shows four strategies to build a truly accountable team. These terms are as follows: 1. Leadership is a decision. 2. Leadership is an obligation. 3. Leadership is hard work. 4. Leadership is a community.

Figure 8.1 The Four Strategies to Build a Truly Accountable Team

Make Leadership Accountability a Priority with Your Team

A good starting point to make leadership accountability a priority with your team is to have a good sense of where the team stands. Conducting a team assessment will provide a baseline measure, confirm current strengths, and pinpoint gaps where the team must be stronger. Take a few minutes now to evaluate your team against the dimensions of team clarity and team commitment. Read each statement and check off whether you see it as strong or weak (see Figures 8.2 and Figure 8.3).

The figure shows different statements (1 to 16) for assessing the team clarity dimension of your team.

Figure 8.2 Assess the Team Clarity Dimension of Your Team

The figure shows different statements (16 to 32) for assessing the team clarity dimension of your team.

Figure 8.3 Assess the Team Commitment Dimension of Your Team

Making Sense of Your Assessment of Your Team

What insights did you gain from your quick assessment of your team? What strengths did you see? What weaknesses or gaps did you see? Let’s analyze your assessment a little further.

  • A Truly Accountable Team. If you checked mostly “strong” boxes, this suggests that you have a team that demonstrates a high degree of accountability. Congratulations! All of this should be translating into extraordinarily strong performance and results. The challenge for you and your team is to maintain this high level of accountability and performance over the long term. The strategies outlined below will help you to continue to maintain strong momentum on your team.
  • A Driven Team. If you have many strength areas in the team clarity dimension but very few in the team commitment dimension, then you may have a highly driven team. These teams tend to demonstrate a real focus on driving results, which is a good thing. However, you will need to determine whether the performance is coming solely from strong individual efforts rather than collective efforts. You may also need to determine whether the team values cohesion. Many driven teams don’t care about this and want to focus on the work and tasks they need to accomplish. You may need to consider whether the lack of cohesion acts as a barrier to a team’s growth.
  • A Supportive Team. In contrast, if you find you have more strength areas in the team commitment dimension, then you may have a supportive team. This team typically has a positive intention to work as a team but may lack a purposeful direction. The team experience is excellent—everyone gets along and has fun. But, and it’s a big “but,” the lack of clarity may mean the team doesn’t deliver expected results. If the team can improve its sense of clarity, it can work toward becoming a truly accountable team.
  • A Weak or Mediocre Team. If you find many gaps checked off on both the team clarity and team commitment dimensions, your team is weak and possibly even mediocre. You need to take action because a team like this just will not cut it in today’s organizations. I would encourage you to implement all the strategies discussed in the rest of this chapter.

You might also want to go back to Chapter 5 and review your assessment of your team against the research data I presented. You may find it valuable to compare your results with the results from the teams in the industry-leading companies. Now that you have a good grasp of where your team stands on team clarity and team commitment, you may also find it useful to have your entire team complete the survey to gain a shared understanding of where the team sees itself.1

Define Your Team’s Obligation

Once you have a sense of where your team stands, then the next critical work to be done is to define your team’s obligation and then create an explicit leadership contract for your team. You will find that these steps will immediately improve both team clarity and team commitment.

It’s always powerful to see a team that has taken the time to define its team obligation. You immediately gain an increased sense of focus, alignment, and commitment to one another. It’s incredible to witness. And yet, very few teams take the time to do this. That’s unfortunate because they are neglecting a simple, yet compelling way to improve their team performance and experience.

Below I present a series of questions for you to reflect on. I always encourage team leaders to work through these questions first on their own before engaging with the team. Defining the team’s obligation is a team task, but I find it valuable for the team leader to think this through beforehand.

To respond to the questions below, think about a point in time in the future, say two or three years out. Imagine that by this date your team is truly accountable and wildly successful in driving extraordinary results. Imagine also that your team has set a positive tone for other teams in your organization. With this ideal vision in mind, now respond to the questions below:

  • What enduring value did your team create?
  • In what specific ways did this team leave your organization in better shape than you found it?
  • What did your customers say about your impact?
  • What did your key stakeholders say about what it was like to work with your team? In what specific ways did you create value for them?
  • What did other employees within your team or across your organization say about the tone your team set for the organization?
  • How did senior management view your team’s impact? What specific things did they say to acknowledge your contribution?
  • What is one statement that best captures your team’s primary leadership obligation?

Your answer (and your team’s answer) to the last question is the most critical; it defines what your team is all about. When teams establish a leadership obligation statement, they reap several benefits. First, it gives teams immediate focus. There is no confusion about what the team is there to do. Second, it inspires the team. Third, it helps the team come together to support one another to achieve success.

Create a Leadership Contract for Your Team

A team’s leadership obligation statement identifies the “what” of a team. Creating a team leadership contract defines the “how” of a team by clearly spelling out the specific ways the team intends to behave and work together. Research shows there are many benefits to establishing a team contract:2

  • First, it makes explicit how team members will interact with one another.
  • Second, it identifies and reinforces desired team behaviors, and thereby helps the team avoid less-productive or even dysfunctional behaviors.
  • Third, it drives a sense of responsibility and trust among the team members.

The process of creating one is straightforward. Simply use the four terms of the leadership contract as a guide to articulate expectations and commitments for your team. Before you begin, let’s see how a team did this work and created their own team leadership contract.

The Senior Executive Team of an Investment Management Firm

My team worked with the senior executives of a full-service investment firm providing investment management, wealth management, and financial planning to their clients. The senior team represented all the top executives from the critical functions of the company. Traditionally, they had been working independently of one another, but as the company grew significantly, they started to experience growing pains. They needed to lead the company not as a group of isolated functions, but as a truly aligned senior executive team. My team worked with them to develop a team leadership contract. It then became the foundation for each executive to work with his or her functional leadership teams to establish consistency and alignment across the organization.

The executives signed their team’s leadership contract. They communicated the terms of their contract to their teams. They also used it as a living document to guide the way they worked together, both during meetings and when working on cross-functional initiatives. The teams also devoted some time every quarter to assess their progress. Here’s the leadership contract that they created (see Figure 8.4). As you read this team’s leadership contract, identify what stands out for you and may be relevant for your own team.

The figure shows a sample leadership contract for senior executive team.

Figure 8.4 A Sample Leadership Contract for Senior Executive Team

You can see how detailed they are in identifying key behaviors and expectations. The more specific and explicit you can be, the better and easier it will be for your team to step up, be accountable, and hold each other to account. Many other teams have created team leadership contracts as well. While they adhere to a similar structure, they are also highly unique from one another. The sample in Figure 8.4 has a lot of specific behaviors the team agrees to live up to; other teams have fewer. You can decide what will work for your team.

Now it’s your turn. Think about some of the themes coming from the team assessment you completed earlier in this chapter. Then review your ideas about defining your team’s leadership obligation. Now think about how your team needs to show up. What expectations and commitments must they live up to? Use the worksheet in Figure 8.5 as a guideline.

The figure shows a templet for creating the team’s leadership contract.

Figure 8.5 Create Your Team’s Leadership Contract

Once you have created a draft of your team’s leadership contract, you must discuss the consequences of not living up to it. Ensure your team members are clear on how they intend to hold one another accountable for living up to the expectations you set together. What will be the consequences if team members do not step up?

Increase the Resilience and Resolve of Your Team

You can employ several strategies to help ensure your team does the hard work of leadership. A big part of this is helping your team build the resilience and resolve it will need to lead effectively as an accountable team. Below I describe several practical strategies for you to consider.

Help Your Team Tackle the Hard Work

In The Leadership Contract, I described the Hard Work Rule of Leadership. It says that as a leader, if you avoid the hard work in your role, you will become weak. However, if you demonstrate the courage to tackle the hard work, you will become strong. The same rule applies to teams. Many teams avoid the hard work of leadership; when they do, they weaken themselves. As the team leader, you need to ensure your team doesn’t fall into this trap.

What kind of hard work do teams avoid? There are two categories: (1) the hard work within the team itself, and (2) the hard work outside of the team. Here are some common challenges that happen within teams:

  • A divided team is misaligned and not arriving at a good business decision.
  • A team member is not pulling their weight and is bringing down the performance of the entire team.
  • A team member misbehaves and violates the terms of your team’s leadership contract.
  • There is underlying or overt conflict within the team.
  • Team members are behaving as mavericks, unwilling to sacrifice for the benefit of their colleagues.

The second category is the hard work involving interactions (or altercations) with teams in other departments or functions across your organization. Here are some common examples:

  • A team in another department is bad-mouthing your team.
  • A team isn’t living up to its commitment to supporting your team.
  • Another team is not transparent or isn’t playing nicely with you.
  • Another team is dismissive and marginalizing your team.
  • A poor-performing team is letting you down and undermining your own team’s ability to perform at a high level.

If you do not address the hard work within your team and outside of it, you will find it harder and harder to build a truly accountable team. Take a few minutes to reflect on these two questions:

  • What is the hard work of leadership that you and your team are avoiding within your team?
  • What is the hard work of leadership that you and your team are avoiding outside of your team?

When your team members and colleagues know that you won’t shy away from any of the hard work that comes your way, it sets a powerful tone for everyone. Be the leader with the courage to tackle the hard work you will face as a team.

Increase Your Team’s Ability to Have Tough Conversations

One of the critical capabilities that truly accountable teams have is their ability to call each other out when necessary and have direct and honest conversations on important issues. You must help your team develop this capability. You can do a lot by setting the right tone and having tough conversations at a one-to-one and team level; but your team also needs to step up. The research also shows one essential ingredient that you will need to have in place.

According to Dr. Amy Edmondson, professor at the Harvard Business School, teams that feel safe perform better. In her book The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation, and Growth, Edmondson says that creating psychological safety isn’t about being nice; it’s about having the courage to have candid conversations, give direct feedback, and admit when one has made a mistake. If you can create this sense of safety on your team, your ability to have tough conversations will increase dramatically.3

How you have tough conversations also matters. In The Leadership Contract Field Guide, I provide steps that leaders can take in having tough conversations. You can also use these steps with your team. Here’s a quick summary of the most critical steps for you to consider:

  • Focus on how much you care. Begin by helping your team to focus on how much it cares about the person, the other team, your company, and your collective success. When teams begin here, I find that having a tough conversation is a little easier, most likely because a sense of safety is established. If I know you are coming from a good place and that you care about me, then I will be much more willing to engage in a tough conversation.
  • Determine whether the team is ready to have the conversation. Sometimes your team is working hard, under the gun on a deadline, and may not be in the ideal headspace to have a tough conversation. If that’s the case, schedule another time when the team is ready.
  • Be direct and factual. All team members should strive to be straightforward during tough conversations. Some team members may react emotionally, which is perfectly fine. But keep a focus on the known facts.
  • Show the impact of their behavior. Sometimes when conversations get heated, team members may lose sight of the impact of not addressing the hard work. Explain how the team’s behavior is undermining the collective success, credibility, and reputation of the team.
  • Encourage an honest response. Strive to create a climate in which you are open to disagreement and debate. Support others when they react defensively or with anger. As the team leader, stay calm.
  • Reaffirm your positive intention. At the end of your tough conversation, reassure your team that you appreciate the courage it took to engage in this conversation. Identify lessons that can carry over to the next tough conversation the team will have.

In my experience, I find that teams that don’t have tough conversations are much less effective. When issues arise and are not addressed, the pent-up emotion, anger, and even resentment can build. These emotions become a hidden barrier to your team’s success. Over time, team members can feel weighed down by carrying the stress of the unresolved issues. Don’t let this happen to your team. Have the courage to have the tough conversations and build a safe climate for doing so.

Develop Your Team’s Resilience and Resolve

In my experience, when a team faces real adversity, one of two things can happen: either they come together, or the team collapses. If the team collapses, everyone turns on each other and starts the blaming, and fighting ensues. When teams come together, they support one another and deal with the adversity from a place of strength.

This is why it’s vital for a leader to regularly gauge their team’s collective resilience and resolve. The CEO of a hospital that I worked with excelled at this. She would routinely walk the hospital floors and have informal conversations with staff. Through those chats, she would gauge their mood, sense of optimism, and reserve power. When I talked to her about this strategy, she said: “We are trying to get a lot done with scarce resources. It’s important work caring for our patients. I need to know whether my team has the resilience to handle their current workload and know when they can take on more. If I push them too much, then we won’t succeed. So I’m constantly connecting with them to see how they are doing.” Are you as connected with your team as this CEO?

Here are some strategies to consider that will help you manage your team’s resilience and resolve:

  • Reach out. Just like the CEO above, make a habit of reaching out to your team members regularly, not to have a performance discussion but to see how they are doing. This is particularly key if you are leading a virtual team. A phone call or Skype discussion with no agenda other than a check-in is a good idea.
  • Watch out for uncharacteristic behavior. Sometimes a team member may be overreacting or getting emotional. If it is uncharacteristic behavior, this could be a telltale sign that something is wrong. It could be a personal issue. Some team members will be open enough to tell you; others may not. You need to ensure that you communicate your support at these moments. This simple gesture is often appreciated and helps the team member cope with a stressful experience.
  • Provide recognition and show appreciation. I find this to be the most undervalued and under-used leadership strategy. Few leaders do it and do it well. We don’t always appreciate how recognition and appreciation can foster resilience and resolve, especially when you show how you value your team and their contributions. Recognition also means noticing the often-unnoticed things that employees do to make their organizations successful. The surprising thing is that many managers rarely provide recognition to the people they lead. It’s such a missed opportunity. Don’t let it be for you.
  • Make resilience and resolve a meeting topic. Make resilience and resolve a topic of discussion during your team meetings. This is an important practice as it communicates to others that you take these ideas seriously, and it helps your team not only gauge where they are personally, but also where their colleagues are.

Be One Team with a United Front

You know you have a truly accountable team when the team presents a united front. In the end, this is all about a sense of community, and when you achieve it, your team sustains its momentum and high performance over the long term. Some leaders may feel that this is a soft concept. However, you’d be surprised how often this sense of community surfaces in my work with leaders. Here are some strategies for building a sense of community and connection on your team:

  • Help the team get to know each other. It is surprising to me how often teams say that they don’t know their teammates on a personal level, and many desire to do so. This is especially true of executive teams. Encourage your team members to get to know one another. A simple and powerful way to do this is the Leadership Timeline Activity that I included in The Leadership Contract Field Guide. It’s an activity whereby individuals reflect on their lives and careers to identify the experiences that have shaped them. Have your team members complete the activity and share their timelines. Even after years of doing this activity with thousands of leaders, I’m always amazed at how effective it is. There is no faster way for leaders to get to know each other and develop a greater appreciation of their diverse backgrounds and unique value.
  • Take time to have fun as a team. As the team leader, you need to keep driving high levels of performance. That’s a given. However, you also need to find times where the team can relax a little. Now I’m not talking about formal team-building sessions—just times to connect, strengthen relationships, and enjoy each other’s company. This is ideally done face to face, but it can also happen virtually. I’ve seen some teams get creative with having fun, even over conference calls. Maybe they begin a team meeting with fun personal facts about each team member. Others begin team calls with positive shout-outs to acknowledge significant contributions to the team’s success.
  • Encourage your team members to meet without you. This is something I’ve always done. I want to make sure that my teams have strong relationships without me being a mediator. The simplest way to do this is to remove yourself and encourage them to step up and connect with one another.
  • Build relationships with other teams. No team is an island in today’s organizations. Reach out and build strong relationships with other teams you work with. Look for ways to meet and learn about what each team does. You may find other teams have things figured out that can be of value for you. Of course, the reverse is also true. Engage in joint planning and problem solving.
  • Fix strained or poor relationships. Getting into the habit of building relationships is key, but it’s also important to fix strained or poor relationships with other teams. You should probably start by having a conversation with the team leader of the other team. Maybe the issue is just between the two of you. If you let these relationships remain as they are, they will only worsen and prevent both teams from being truly successful.

Final Thoughts

Teams are the future of organizations. Let me restate that. Accountable teams are the future of organizations. As we’ve seen from the research, most teams are seen as being weak and mediocre. We need leaders who can create much stronger teams and team experiences for the people they lead. You can be the leader who sets the tone for others. Commit to putting the ideas in this chapter into practice, and you will develop an excellent reputation as a builder of effective and accountable teams that demonstrate clarity and commitment.

Gut Check for Leaders: How to Build an Accountable Team

As you think about the ideas in this chapter, reflect on your answers to the following Gut Check for Leaders questions:

  1. Do you make leadership accountability a priority with your teams?
  2. To what extent are you clear about your team’s obligations?
  3. Have you created a leadership contract for your team?
  4. To what extent does your team demonstrate resilience and resolve?
  5. Have you established a safe climate so your team can hold each other accountable and have tough conversations?
  6. Does your team present as a united front and a cohesive group to the rest of the organization?

Notes

  1. 1Go to my website at www.drvincemolinaro.com, where you can access information on conducting a complete team assessment and session with your own team.
  2. 2Christine M. Riordan and Kevin O’Brien, “For Great Teamwork, Start with a Social Contract,” Harvard Business Review, April 17, 2012, https://hbr.org/2012/04/to-ensure-great-teamwork-start.
  3. 3Amy C. Edmondson, The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation, and Growth (John Wiley & Sons, 2019).
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