Want to be a trustworthy leader? Always be accountable
The best leadership advice I ever received was very simple: Take ownership of your work, your decisions, and the people who rely on you to lead. I speak of ownership in the context of accountability and willingness to stand in front of your work, as opposed to control or micromanagement. Early in my career, after I had undeniably made a mistake, my mentor sat me down. Instead of scolding me or taking me to task for the very clear error, he asked me a simple question. “What can I do to help you grow and learn from this?”
My mentor viewed my mistake as a sign for him to improve in his training of me. This moment reshaped how I view leadership and teamwork. It’s very easy to share the credit when things are going well. But when something goes wrong, the leader is the one to take the hit first and sort the details out later. This is important because your team will do their best work when they know their leader will not disappear or point fingers at the first sign of friction. Accountability and ownership at the top fosters honesty, collaboration, and loyalty, particularly when we leaders treat mentorship and development of younger team members as part of the job description as opposed to an add-on.
This advice from my mentor stayed with me because it taught me that accountability builds trust quickly and sustains it over time. It creates a culture where people feel safe raising concerns, asking questions, and taking initiative. They feel comfortable bringing problems, mistakes, and concerns to the leaders’ attention, because the focus is on collaborative solutions as opposed to blame shifting.
