Leadership Accountability Part 1- ‘How to do it’
“ It was my decision for them to take the penalty. I take full responsibility”- Gareth Southgate
In my experience, Leadership accountability isn't a typical characteristic. During transformation programmes, I have sessions dedicated explicitly to establishing accountability in the leadership team because it is one of the barriers in a programme and a success factor.
The root cause as to why people don't typically want to hold their hands up is because if something goes wrong, no one wants to be seen as the 'failure', 'incompetent' or deal with the repercussions of a blame culture.
When I was listening to Gareth's interview, what I respected the most is his quick ability to take accountability for his decision, protect his team and not allow the reporter to single anyone out for the loss England faced.
It should be debated whether or not Gareth made the right call. What isn't debatable is he is taking full accountability as a leader for his decision.
Not many leaders can stand in a mess and not throw members of their team under the bus.