Page 263 - Fearless Leadership

250 FEARLESS LEADERSHIP

took me by surprise. I was accustomed to a hierarchical company in which
senior leaders made decisions and communicated them downward. Now
we have informal leaders emerging at all levels who are holding our sen-
ior leaders accountable. My advice to leaders who take on high perfor-
mance: be prepared for your people to hold you and other senior leaders
accountable for your behavior.”
Holding each other accountable requires the willingness to construc-
tively intervene and take a stand that says “We’re going to handle this
breakdown or issue right now.” Where coaching enlightens someone to
the existence of a problem and raises his or her level of awareness, con-
structive intervention is the insistence that the problematic behavior be
handled in the moment. Committed partners draw a line in the sand and
address the issue immediately. This is what happened in our story below.

The Great Rant: Holding Leaders Accountable for
Their Commitment to Play Big
What Happened. There was a general atmosphere of whining,
complaining, and taking shots at one another, and there was collec-
tive denial that they were doing this. The leadership group of a major
business operation was behaving in a way that was inconsistent with
what they said they were committed to: building a high performance
culture. They had their feet nailed to the floor and were arguing
about being right. The team leader, Pierre, attempted to handle the
situation, but rather than taking a strong stand, he simply said, “Let’s
get back to our agenda.”
Neither group members nor the team leader stopped the unpro-
ductive behavior. What was needed was for someone to take a
strong stand and say, “Our behavior is not demonstrating our com-
mitment to work in partnership. We need to stop attacking and blam-
ing one another and take accountability for how we are derailing this
conversation.”
But no one spoke up. My group and I were working with the team
and finally I couldn’t take it anymore. I intervened and said, “This
pettiness is unacceptable. I know each of you personally and you are
all so much bigger than this. You have led this business to greatness
and have succeeded in engaging everyone in building a high perfor-