Do you ever wish you had a time machine so you could go back and do things differently as a leader?
Last week I found myself wanting to climb into Marty McFly’s DeLorean.
I was thinking about accountability and remembered a situation I would approach differently if I had the chance.
The Conversation I Didn’t Have
“Lisa” had been on my team for a couple of years.
She did good work, and we’d developed a good working relationship.
Things were generally going well.
But if I could zap 1.21 gigawatts into the flux capacitor at 88 miles per hour, there’s a moment I would drop myself into.
I remember avoiding a conversation I knew I needed to have.
It wasn’t an urgent, crisis-level situation.
There was just a pattern I had been noticing with Lisa.
Something seemed off.
Her performance hadn’t declined, but something made me think she wasn’t contributing as much value as she could.
But I didn’t say anything.
Instead, I waited.
Not because I didn’t care.
But because I did.
I didn’t want to damage our relationship.
I didn’t want to discourage her.
I didn’t want to get it wrong.
So I did what a lot of leaders do.
I said nothing.
And I missed the first step of holding someone accountable.
Sadly, had I known how things would end for Lisa, I would have done things differently.
Why This Isn’t as Simple as It Sounds
In leadership circles, we often talk about accountability like it’s simple.
You just need to follow a process:
- Set goals.
- Track progress.
- Follow up.
Accountability is easy, right?
In my experience, it’s a lot like Back to the Future time travel.
It’s harder to make happen in the real world.
Because that formulaic approach to accountability is not what most of us struggle with.
The hard part is this:
Sitting down with another human being
and talking about something that isn’t quite working.
That’s where things get uncomfortable.
That’s where most leaders either:
• avoid the conversation entirely
• or come in too strong and create defensiveness
I’ve done both.
A Different Way to Think About Accountability
After my experience with Lisa, I came across someone who gave me a completely different way to think about accountability.
Jonathan Raymond
He teaches something called The Accountability Dial.
And it changed how I approach these conversations.
Here’s the core idea:
Accountability isn’t a one-time event you complete.
It’s something you deliver over time.
It takes perseverance.
And patience.
That’s why Jonathan describes accountability as a dial with multiple settings.
Unfortunately, most of us only use two settings:
• Off (we say nothing)
• Full blast (we jump straight into a serious conversation)
The problem is that real leadership happens in between those two.
The Accountability Dial
The Accountability Dial is a tool that gives you a progression:
• The Mention
• The Invitation
• The Conversation
• The Boundary
• The Limit
You don’t start at the top.
You start small.
The first step is what hit me the hardest when I reflected on the situation with Lisa.
The Mention.
It takes about five seconds.
No long speech.
No judgment.
No fixing.
Just:
“Hey, I noticed something…”
That’s it.
That one idea exposed something in me.
It showed me that I often skip that step.
I tend to either:
• wait too long
• or come in too strong
And neither serves the other person.
Had I applied The Mention setting on the Accountability Dial with Lisa, I expect things would have gone better for her while she reported to me.
And, she may not have ended her time with the company as she did.
Why We Wait Too Long
Jonathan uses a phrase that’s stuck with me:
Great accountability is not punitive.
That’s the part most of us are trying to get right.
We don’t want to be heavy-handed or mean.
We want to be kind.
But in trying to be kind, we hesitate.
And in hesitating, we let things go too long.
Then when we finally do speak up…
our words carry more weight than they need to.
If this is something you’ve felt as a leader, I encourage you to watch this.
It’s about 24 minutes, and it’s worth your time and attention:
If you do nothing else this week to improve as a leader, watch this video.
And here’s why I’m pointing you to it instead of trying to teach it all here.
Understanding this idea is one thing.
Using it well… in a real conversation, with a real person, when the stakes feel high…
That’s something else entirely.
I still catch myself getting it wrong.
Saying too much.
Waiting too long.
Jumping steps.
Not because I don’t know better.
But because in the moment, it’s hard to see clearly.
Especially when you’re trying to do it alone.
The good news is you don’t have to.
You Don’t Have to Go It Alone
That’s the work I do with leaders.
Not just giving them better tools.
Helping them:
• recognize what’s actually happening in the moment
• choose the right level of response
• and follow through in a way that builds trust instead of tension
If you watch the video and find yourself thinking:
“This makes sense… but I’m not sure I’d do it well when it matters”
That’s exactly the kind of situation I help with.
You can reply to this email, or grab a time for us to talk:
Schedule a call.
Before You Have Your Own “Lisa” Story
As I’ve been thinking about this again recently, here’s the question I keep coming back to:
Where am I skipping “The Mention”?
Where am I waiting… when I could simply notice and name something small?
And, of course, I wonder about Lisa.
She ended up taking a job in a different part of the business, working for one of my peers.
During the interview process and the transition, her new supervisor and I both had a sense that something wasn’t quite right.
Everything looked good on the outside but our guts told us there was more going on under the surface.
But we moved forward anyway.
Without using The Mention.
Unfortunately, we should have paid more attention to what we were noticing.
Without going into all the heartbreaking details, things fell apart.
She left the company, and not on good terms.
It was a hard lesson for me to learn.
And one I hope you can avoid.
Accountability is not quite as hard as traveling through time, but it’s definitely difficult.
I hope The Accountability Dial framework from Jonathan Raymond serves you well.
And it keeps you from having your own Lisa story to tell.
If you’d like someone to walk alongside you as you serve your team, let me know.
And, if you watch the video, I’d love to hear what stands out to you.
Helping you lead with clarity and confidence,
Greg
P.S. I sent you an email last week with a short video so you can hear my voice if we’ve never met. Check it out here if you missed it.
If you’d like to see any of my previous newsletter issues, you can find them here along with other articles. And, if you’re not getting my weekly newsletter and would like to, just enter your info here.
Greg Harrod
Greg Harrod is a Business Coach and Strategic Communications Partner. Follow GregHarrod.com to learn how you can build clear communication, aligned teams, and simple rhythms so your business runs smoothly. Greg will help you learn how to go from daily firefighting to calm, confident leadership by sharing his 30+ years of experience leading teams and businesses.
A quick note about affiliates
Some of the pages on my website contain affiliate links to products, apps, and services. If you click through and purchase, I may receive a commission on the sale and you pay no more. My policy is to only affiliate with products and services that I believe will provide value to you.