If you haven’t noticed, the world has changed within the last five months. The world had shut down like never before and caused leaders all over the world to rely on maxims rather than theory to guide them this difficult time. We had little to no facts to rely on. What we thought we knew, we were wrong about and what we said was wrong, somehow was right. Despite the chaos and confusion there were some glimpses of spectacular leadership the stood out to me. On May 11, 2020, the 52nd day of California quarantine lockdown, Elon Musk tweeted, “Tesla is restarting production today against Alameda County rule. I will be on the line with everyone else. If anyone is arrested, I ask that it only be me” (Musk, 2020). I found this level of accountability and a decision like this to be made with such a high risk for the greater good of his company quite admirable. I began to think, what is accountability and why is it important for leadership.
Cornett (2018) states, “Accountability occurs when individuals reliably deliver on their commitments showing others they can be trusted to do what they say they’ll do. Leaders further demonstrate accountability by taking responsibility for the outcomes of their actions and decisions and successfully transforming effort into results.” I think there are two very important take aways from that statement. First, the ability as a leader to deliver what you say you will. This action is important for building trust within your team and with your supervision. I do not have enough fingers and toes to count how many times I’ve been told I’d get a call back, I’d receive an email, or delivering a product by a certain deadline only to be let down. Secondly, leaders take responsibility for the outcome of their decisions. When I started a new position as a flightline expediter, I remember making all kinds of bad decisions but I always owned up to it and maybe more importantly when I decided to make a decision about something, I let my team know that I would always own up to the consequence from my supervisor and not throw my subordinates and peers under the bus. I think accountability on this level provides leaders an open mind for growth. By owning up to your mistakes, one should be able to vow to not repeat said mistakes and learn from these events.
In 1974 Ralph Stogdill conducted a survey on leadership and identified 10 traits that were identified with leadership and among them was the, “willingness to accept consequences of decision and action” (Northouse, 2016, p. 20). As we learned from the Northouse readings, among the components of leadership is the necessity of forming a group context. Primarily this group context is between the leader and their subordinates and the sinew that holds this relationship together is trust. I not know of another way to build trust aside from accountability. We see this though the parent-child relationship, my kids hold me and my wife accountable for providing for them and keep them safe. Trust is built through accountability in every relationship and this is why it is important for leadership. If subordinates cannot trust their leadership then they will never believe that their leaders have their best interest in them.
With current climate that we are in I could only hope that all leaders not only become accountable for their actions but also learn from them. I remember my first day on my expediting job, I had made a huge mistake. I got yelled at by my supervisor over the radio so that everyone could hear. He also called over the radio to meet him so that everyone could watch him yell at me. I never backed down from my mistake and didn’t blame anyone else for it. A couple hours later he called me into his office and genuinely provided me with constructive feedback which I greatly appreciated. I could only imagine the amount of trust that I had built that day forward by owning to my mistake. I’ve worked with only a handful of people who were never accountable for their actions. Nothing was ever their fault and it was always because someone else didn’t do something which made them not able to deliver on their word. In times like this, we need more leaders like Elon Musk, willing to take risks and stay accountable for their actions.
References
Cornett, Ian. 5 Ways to Demonstrate Leadership Accountability & Ensure it in Others. 2018, July 10. Eagle’s Flight. Retreived from https://www.eaglesflight.com/blog/5-ways-to-demonstrate-leadership-accountability-ensure-it-in-others
Northouse, P. G. Leadership: Theory and Practice. [MBS Direct]. Retrieved from https://mbsdirect.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781483382715/
Musk, Elon. 2020, May 11. Twitter. Retreived from https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1259945593805221891?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1259945593805221891&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fthedriven.io%2F2020%2F05%2F12%2Felon-musk-confirms-tesla-is-making-electric-cars-again-in-fremont%2F
dlb5692 says
While I understand that many people would see Elon Musk’s actions as showing leadership, I disagree. Leaders should be an example to their followers, Mr. Musk put the health and freedom of his employees at risk by having them go back to work during a shutdown. By saying, “Tesla is restarting production today against Alameda County rule. I will be on the line with everyone else. If anyone is arrested, I ask that it only be me”, he in no way guaranteeing that his employees would not be arrested or worse come in contact with COVID-19 (Musk, 2020). By restarting production prior to the all-clear from the government or health officials, Mr. Musk showed that he has an Authority-Compliance outlook on leadership. This is when a leader “places heavy emphasis on task and job requirements, and less emphasis interpersonal relationships” (Northouse, 2016).
No leader can truly lead without being accountable or honest with their followers. As Northouse states, “when leaders are not honest, others come to see them as undependable and unreliable” (Northouse, 2016). Once a leader is found to be undependable, there is no reason for the follower to continue to trust them. We have all had situations where we find the people we are dealing with are not being completely honest or giving half a story to not come off as unaccountable, the choice then is whether or not you decide to deal with that person in the future. A good leader should be able to balance the situation with honesty and integrity, and not reduce themselves to merely saying what they think the follower wants to hear, then coming off as undependable.
Stogdill’s trait of willing to accept consequences of decisions and actions that one makes, is one that I could not agree more with. A leader who is willing to fall on their sward and take responsibility not only for their decisions, but for the decisions of their followers is a leader who is accountable and reliable to those followers. A leader who chooses to throw a follower under the proverbial bus, does not show integrity or emotional intelligence.
While Mr. Musk was willing to except the consequences of his actions, he did not have the right to put his employees at risk of thee consequences, just to make a point to the government that he could open without permission. He showed a lack of emotional intelligence by opening his factory against health officials’ warnings that his employees could become very ill. Mr. Musk put profit ahead of people, and no good leader should ever do that.
Resources
Northouse, P. (2016). Leadership: Theory and Practice, Seventh Edition. Los Angeles: Sage Publications.
Musk, Elon. 2020, May 11. Twitter. Retreived from https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1259945593805221891?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1259945593805221891&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fthedriven.io%2F2020%2F05%2F12%2Felon-musk-confirms-tesla-is-making-electric-cars-again-in-fremont%2F
dir5254 says
It is never enjoyable to work with individuals that have problems owning up to their actions/mistakes. I recently had the opportunity to train an individual in a duty position called a Logistical Support Operations Supervisor. This is the most important position in terms of planning and executing this operation. He is responsible for coordinating the arrival dates/times of a C-17, security timelines, and duty rosters for over 100 people working on that day. After successfully planning, he is responsible for establishing a security area over the spot where the aircraft will be parking and make sure his team is ready to accept it when it lands. The individual I was training performed poorly during both phases and, rather than taking ownership of his actions, tried to put all of the blame on me. What he didn’t know was that I had been constantly updating my leadership on how he had been doing and had asked multiple times if they would like me to step in. He was immediately called out and has been relieved from that duty position. If he decided to take ownership of his mistakes, the outcome may have been different for him. He may have received a second chance and have the opportunity to redeem himself.
I agree that it is very important for a leader to take accountability of their actions and even their team’s actions. The leader is responsible for everything their team does or fails to do (Army, 2017). If you have this mindset as a leader, your team will trust your decisions and rely on you to help them achieve their goals. The team will also rely on you to make the right decisions. If a barber shop opened early against the COVID-19 restrictions, would the owner be considered a good decision maker? There have been many that tried that in the past few months and they were shut back down with additional fines from the local court. Yes, they cared about their workers, families, and their business which is why they went against the restrictions. But does that make it right? Did Elon Musk make the right decision by breaking the rules and bringing his team back into an unsafe environment? His business is not the only one in this situation. There are many others companies that continued to wait until the restrictions were lifted. Did they make a better decision by following the guidance emplaced by our country leaders?
References
Army (2017). U.S. Army Ranger Handbook. New York: Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.