Share responsibility for objectives and keep the accountability

Hand real ownership of objectives and coordination to your team, and be explicit about the accountability you keep as the formal leader.

Pourquoi ça marche

The book says managers at the Pre-expert level (the level below Expert, which the book estimates about 10 percent of managers still occupy), the Expert level and the Achiever level, about 90 percent of all managers, operate from a “heroic” mind-set, assuming sole responsibility for setting objectives, coordinating subordinates and managing performance. It says heroic leadership “overcontrols and underutilizes subordinates,” and discourages people from feeling responsible beyond their assigned area, although it “can be highly effective in certain situations.” Leaders beyond the Achiever level “retain the ultimate accountability and authority” of a formal role while building teams with shared commitment and responsibility.

Comment faire

1. List the objectives you currently set alone and the decisions you coordinate yourself, one line each.
2. Choose one objective and ask the people who will carry it to draft the path to it, while you state plainly what you still decide.
3. Give one person ownership of a piece you would normally manage, and agree in advance what you will review.
4. Watch whether people take responsibility beyond their own area, and name it when they do.

Données probantes

The heroic and post-heroic distinction, and the statement that heroic leadership overcontrols subordinates, come from the book’s first chapter. The excerpt attributes the distinction to Bradford and Cohen’s Power Up. The authors present the model as a description of leadership and do not, in the sources read, test whether shared responsibility improves team outcomes. (anecdotal)

Shared responsibility is presented as needed for sustained success in complex environments. That is the authors’ argument, and this page cannot confirm it from the sources it reads.

Sources

• Joiner, W. B., & Josephs, S. A. (2006). Leadership Agility: Five Levels of Mastery for Anticipating and Initiating Change, Chapter 1 (publisher excerpt). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Erreur fréquente

Mistaking shared commitment for abdication. The book keeps ultimate accountability and authority with the formal leader, so sharing the work does not mean handing the accountability away.