A culture of accountability is shaped by the structures, systems, and support of leadership.

When expectations are clear and support is offered, accountability becomes a choice.

With a feedforward approach and a growth mindset, leaders shift accountability from blame to development.

“People just don’t follow through anymore.”

“No one takes ownership anymore.”

“Why can’t they do what they said they would do?”

While most leaders have said this, what if the problem isn’t a lack of discipline, motivation, or work ethic? What if the real issue is that leaders aren’t fully considering the invisible work of accountability? They ignore the behind‑the‑scenes structures, conversations, conditions, and mindsets that make accountability possible in the first place.

Accountability does not begin with correcting poor performance; it begins long before that, in the norms, expectations, and communication practices a leader creates. When you are a leader, accountability is never something that happens in isolation. Accountability cannot be demanded into existence. Instead, accountability is co-created through clarity, support, and psychological safety. For example, take a leader who is reprioritizing a report due this Friday and has an open conversation with the coordinator who has previously mishandled deadlines. The leader no longer sees laziness as a potential issue, as they’ve created the open space, and the coordinator expressed the three competing priorities and asked for clarity on which mattered most.

Situations like this are where the concepts of feedforward, a concept developed by Marshall Goldsmith as a future‑focused alternative to feedback, and growth mindset, developed by Carol Dweck, become essential. Both emphasize learning, continuous improvement, and forward progress rather than dwelling on blame or past mistakes.

To make sense of accountability, it helps to return to the basic definition: being responsible for your actions and decisions, and following through on your commitments. But for leaders, this definition becomes incomplete. Leadership accountability is not just about holding others responsible; it is also about creating the conditions in which others can be responsible. You must ensure that structures, systems, support, and expectations are shaped in ways that make accountability realistic, not aspirational.

Accountability Needs a System

Leaders must go beyond the surface-level expectation of “Tell them what to do, and they should do it.” Expectation without support is not accountability. It’s wishful thinking. And hope is not a system. The invisible work of accountability requires leaders to ask themselves:

Does this person have the time to do what I’m asking?

Do they have the resources?

Do they have authority or decision rights?

Do they understand the why, the how, and the desired outcome?

Do they know which trade-offs are acceptable?

Do they feel safe raising concerns or asking for clarification?

When these underlying conditions are absent, accountability breaks down. You may see delays, excuses, avoidance, or inconsistent performance. These, however, are not causes of problems; they are symptoms. When systems are unclear or poorly designed, people will find ways to work around them, often unintentionally. They may avoid taking ownership because it feels risky. They may blame “the system,” other departments, bureaucracy, or unclear expectations because, from their perspective, those barriers are real. And in many cases, they are right.

Many employees are asked to complete tasks or make decisions without having the time, authority, or resources they need to be successful. A person cannot be accountable for something they do not have the means to accomplish. Yet, in workplaces where psychological safety is low, employees may not feel comfortable saying, “I don’t have what I need,” or “This deadline is not realistic.”

When employees do not feel safe raising these concerns, leaders become unintentionally complicit in the breakdown of accountability. If they don’t feel like they can come to you, then you are just as liable as they are for the outcome. Accountability becomes compromised not because people don’t care, but because the environment does not support honesty, transparency, or dialogue.

Accountable Leaders Clear the Path

A leader’s role is not simply to assign work but to clear the path. You must scan for obstacles, anticipate barriers, and remove friction that keeps people from doing their best work. This includes structural barriers (e.g., processes, workload, resource constraints), interpersonal barriers (e.g., fear of conflict, disappointing others), and cultural barriers (e.g., an outdated belief that questioning authority is punishable). Leaders who overlook these elements create a mismatch between what is promised and what is delivered. Not out of lack of effort, but out of misalignment.

Creating a culture of open communication, trust, and clarity requires intentional action. It will not emerge on its own. Two powerful tools that support this culture are feedforward and growth mindset.

Goldsmith’s feedforward approach shifts the focus from what went wrong in the past to what can be done differently in the future. It redirects the conversation toward possibilities, opportunities, and actionable next steps. Instead of saying, “You didn’t meet the deadline,” a feedforward approach includes verbiage like, “For the next project, let’s discuss what support or resources you’ll need to deliver on time.” This reduces defensiveness and increases collaboration. It keeps accountability productive rather than punitive.

Growth mindset, based on Dweck’s research, reinforces the idea that abilities and skills are not fixed traits but can be developed through effort, feedback, and learning. When leaders adopt a growth mindset, they approach accountability conversations with curiosity rather than judgment. They ask questions like:

“What got in the way?”

“What did you learn from this?”

“How can we set this up for success next time?”

This shifts accountability from a moment of blame to a moment of development. It encourages people to take ownership of mistakes, not because they fear punishment, but because they feel supported in learning from them.

Accountability Is Shared

Creating the right conditions doesn't offset personal responsibility. Accountability is shared. It’s up to leaders to create the environment and individuals to choose how they show up in it. Psychological safety isn’t permission to not fulfill commitments without consequences. A growth mindset doesn’t mean standards are lowered. Feedforward doesn’t replace clear expectations.

When expectations are clear and support is offered, accountability becomes a choice. At that point, patterns of missed commitments are no longer systemic; they are behavioral. And behavior can and should be addressed directly.

In the end, accountability is not about catching people doing something wrong. It is about creating an environment where people can do things right. It is about making the invisible visible: the conversations, the expectations, the resources, the psychological safety, and the mindset that allow people to show up fully and take true ownership of their work. When leaders understand and invest in this invisible work, follow-through improves, trust strengthens, and performance becomes not just an expectation but a shared commitment.

Dweck, C. S. (2006). Mindset: The new psychology of success. Random House.

Goldsmith, M. (2003). Try feedforward instead of feedback. Journal for Quality and Participation, 38-40.

Latessa, R. A., Galvin, S. L., Swendiman, R. A., Onyango, J., Ostrach, B., Edmondson, A. C., Davis, S. A., & Hirsh, D. A. (2023). Psychological safety and accountability in longitudinal integrated clerkships: A dual institution qualitative study. BMC Medical Education, 23: 760.

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