Page 137 - Fearless Leadership

124 FEARLESS LEADERSHIP

you conspire with one another. Is this what you call accountable behav-
ior?” we asked. Zari, a highly responsible leader, said, “When you put
it that way, I can see how my behavior has not been accountable or
an example of the leadership I expect from others.”
Zari’s breakthrough led her to ask her group a question that con-
fronted the real issue: “Where do we need to take accountability for
our partnership with community leaders by changing our behavior?”

The Committed Partnership Created. Zari and her leadership
team changed their behavior and took accountability for their impact
which produced an immediate and positive change in how commu-
nity leaders responded. This started the process of building a new part-
nership with one another. It must be noted that Zari’s success was in
large part due to her courage to take accountability for her behavior
and how she had allowed her team to become the “victim.”
Moving in a New Direction with a Major Distributor. Clarke, a
senior vice president, and his group were resigned about working
with a “controlling and demanding” distributor. “It’s a waste of time
to try and change the ways of the distributor. They are stubborn and
inflexible and tell us ‘that’s the way we do things around here.’ We
avoid them every chance we get and just work around them,” said one
of Clarke’s team members. Problems smoldered and grew between
the two firms with each company judging the other as inflexible.
In a fit of despair, a member of Clarke’s group halfheartedly said,
“Maybe we could talk with the distributor group about ‘how’ we work
together and find a new solution.” The group spurned the idea and
called it “a moment of insanity” and said, “They’ll never listen to what
we have to say.” But as is so often the case in transformation, the most
unimaginable becomes attainable when you change direction and
look from a different perspective.
After incredulity and doubt receded, Clarke’s group reconsidered.
“What have we got to lose?” asked a team member. Indeed, what is
there to lose when the lines are drawn and partners have become
opponents? Our fear in these cases is of going from bad to disastrous
and upsetting the delicate balance in the relationship. This is where
fearless leadership is needed most: to turn into the storm and toward