The Hindu Business Line : The leader’s dilemma

Accountability is all about the past; more like a post-mortem of historical performance. Who is responsible, especially for mistakes, missing results and damage? Investigations and commissions of enquiry to fix the blame for some disaster or damage be come all important.

This is often an opportunity for retirees to graze in the garden of goodies laid out by the establishment and tilt at windmills! Handing out censure and punishment! Making an example in the pious hope that deterrence will prevent future default.

Accountability is therefore, after the performance that mostly did not deliver desired results. I have hardly heard anyone being held accountable for achieving targets; the connotation is therefore always negative.

Negative influence

A leader who is focused only on accountability is likely to be an extremely negative influence on the organisation.

The ready example of a bank chairman comes to mind; the chairman was so obsessed with accountability that no officer was willing to sanction loans; needless to say, the bank’s asset portfolio stopped growing and quite predictably the profits shrank!

Such leaders create a culture of fear that kills creativity and initiative. People tend to go by the book and become risk averse in the extreme. Intrapreneurial energy evaporates and soon the organisation grinds to a halt. Often, such organisations become ripe targets for takeovers since the basic business model is still attractive. The only change required for such an organisation to return to profits is a new leader!

Motivation, on the other hand, is all about the present and future; the here and hereafter! It’s all about hope: hope for a better future, improved results and greater recognition and rewards. Aptly derived from the Latin movere (to move), motivation is linked to personal and organisational dynamism, a willingness to confront and overcome obstacles in the pursuit of goals.

Positive connotation

It has an entirely positive connotation since it appeals to the best and noblest aspects of human beings.

Since human beings are not just logic machines they respond magnificently to affection, encouragement and nurturing in a manner that simply can’t be quantified. Fantastic results can invariably be traced back to sky high motivation of the performers.

A leader who’s focused on motivation can be extremely effective in shifting results upwards by an order of magnitude. Motivation without results is like a car without the engine! The whole point about motivation is to create conditions for the achievement of results. The primary responsibility of the leader is to guarantee results; a highly motivated team is simply more likely to produce results.

The bottom line is simply this: pseudo-leaders spread negative energy by blame-fixing, hogging all the credit and being self-centered. Great leaders not only deliver results, they also build the capacity to deliver results; this they do by creating ownership through involvement, encouragement and feedback.

So the leader’s dilemma can be resolved by a judicious mix of accountability for results and motivation; the locus must shift away from the negatives inherent in accountability to the positives embedded in motivation.

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