1. © L Bonita Patterson, 2014 – Permission to copy or quote from this article if used with attribution.
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Published in the June 2014
Newsletter
Behavioral Accountability - Transform Your Organization
A study in Harvard Business Review (HBR), found that the single most neglected responsibility
of leaders is holding people accountable. When it is time to step up, create the basis for
accountability, and have the conversations – leaders back away. The findings are consistent in
the U.S., Europe, Latin America, and Asia-Pacific; and at all levels of management.
My experience supports the HBR findings, as I have found it to be one of the biggest obstacles
limiting organizational success. As companies continue the drive for increased results, they
focus on performance accountability, but overlook behavioral accountability.
Performance accountability focuses on quantifiable measures, which are objective and
relatively straightforward. Degree of attainment is easy for leaders to explain – the person hit
the number, or did not. More often than not, performance accountability relies on lagging
indicators, which are easy to measure, but hard (or to late) to improve.
Behavioral accountability addresses how people act. It has
a higher degree of leadership difficulty, because it requires
subjective evaluation and difficult conversations. But it is
worth the effort. It is one of the most powerful levers in
transforming an organization because behaviors are leading
indicators of performance and results. They are harder to
measure, but have a profound (positive or negative) impact
on the organization. For example, if leader behaviors take
a downturn toward: 1) disregard for the customer, 2)
unwillingness to engage with other departments, and 3)
objectifying employees – it cascades throughout the
organization and destroys trust, collaboration, and
customer service, which in turn decimates the business.
The organizational devastation may not be immediately
evident in the performance measures, because enough people may be doing extra work to
make up for increasing deficiencies. The extra efforts may include redoing work several times
because sufficient information was not shared up front; or developing “work-arounds” for
individuals, departments, processes, and procedures that block progress. This increase of

2. © L Bonita Patterson, 2014 – Permission to copy or quote from this article if used with attribution.
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compensatory actions to overcome mounting
inefficiencies, drains the enthusiasm and creativity of
the workforce, and dampens the company’s
competitive advantage…then tick tock…it’s just a
matter of time.
The president of a company with whom I worked,
ignored behavioral accountability to the detriment of
his company. He expressed frustration with the
attitude of one of the vice presidents reporting to him.
This VP had outstanding performance accountability
and led the leadership team in business attainment.
However, his condescending, entitled attitude was
poisoning the workplace. The president noticed the
rest of the leadership team was beginning to adopt the
negative behaviors. When I asked him how he had
been dealing with the VP, he said, “I haven’t dealt with it directly. I didn’t want to upset him
because I need him to maintain his performance level.” I later learned that other members of
the leadership team were very capable, but their performance had been declining, and they
seemed a little “checked out.”
By not taking action, the president had sent a clear message that the VP’s behavior was
acceptable, thus facilitating its proliferation, which contributed to the breakdown of a once
strong leadership team. The “catch-22” - as the leadership team disengaged, business results
declined, which increased the president’s reliance on the VP’s revenue generation. Had the
president addressed the VP’s behaviors from the beginning, he might not have ended up in this
predicament. It was easy for him to overlook the behavioral issues because it felt unpleasant
(and messy) to deal with, and the negative impact of letting it continue was not immediately
evident to him.
To determine what behaviors were impacting which areas of the business, we conducted an
organization-wide survey. Prior to launching the survey, we implemented a communication
campaign acknowledging the need to improve the culture, enhance teamwork, open the lines
of communication, and align behaviors with company values and strategies. The president
delivered the messages via video, department meetings, cross functional open forums, and
“roundtables.” He did a lot of listening. It was challenging for him to stay in listening mode and
not be defensive, but our practice role plays helped prepare him for the feedback. He learned
that people were skeptical about any positive changes happening as a result of the survey
findings, but he gained their agreement to participate fully and surface their concerns so
management could understand how they experience the workplace.
The survey results indicated some deep fissures. The president committed to begin the change
at the top of the organization and held himself and his leadership team accountable. He
relentlessly, immediately, and consistently addressed negative behaviors – no matter how

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obscure; coached the leadership team in one-on-one meetings and as a group; and became
more personally accountable to his coach. Every discussion of behavior addressed the impact
of the behavior on the leadership, employees, customers, and business results.
Overtime, the leadership team began to self-regulate by holding each other accountable and
respectfully confronting each other about behaviors that send the wrong message. Peer
accountability is the most impactful because each member of the team is taking responsibility
for the effectiveness of the group, and relying on each other to get back on track. According to
Patrick Lencioni, “peer-to-peer accountability is the primary and most effective source of
accountability on the leadership team of a healthy organization.”
The improved cohesiveness of the leadership team helped accelerate the transformation
process. They discussed the challenges of implementing behavioral accountability consistently
across their departments, and practiced handling challenging situations.
At first, the VP whose poisonous behavior heightened the awareness of the President, was
decidedly unfazed by the transformation initiative. The VP later shared with me that his plan
was to wait for this to blow over and for things to get back to (his) normal. When he realized
the depth of the president’s commitment to change, he seriously contemplated quitting. The
president informed him that he wanted him to stay with the company, but only if he was willing
to grow and develop, and that he would respect his decision. The president agonized over the
threat of losing the VP, and he reconciled the angst of the potential loss, with the promise of a
healthier organization, with everyone contributing more fully – and getting better results. The
VP decided to stay and make a sincere effort to change even though he wasn’t sure he would
be able to do it. He determined he needed extra support to shift his behavior, which he
received through coaching. He improved dramatically. When he occasionally reverted back to
familiar negative behavior, he quickly acknowledged, corrected, and repaired any damage he
caused. He was also open-minded, and took ownership when his leadership teammates pointed
out any counterproductive behavior.
The leadership heeded the survey data and changed the way they interacted on a daily basis,
then helped their direct reports change, and so it rippled through the organization. It is a more
empowered and energized workplace with more actively engaged employees. As Stephen
Covey says - “accountability is respons-ability.”
L. Bonita Patterson is President and Founder of PolalarisConsultingGroup.BIZ, an organizational
transformation firm. Bonita provides coaching, consultation, facilitation and workshops to
improve bottom line results by aligning behaviors with strategic business intent. She leverages
her expertise in communications, emotional intelligence, leadership and team development,
strategic planning, and Cultural Transformation Tools to enhance engagement and boost
results. Visit her website for more information: www.polarisconsulting.BIZ.