Leadership Accountability: Take Charge, Own Mistakes

According to news reports, a 34 year old Indian woman tourist who was 31 weeks pregnant died in Portugal last week. She was taken to Lisbon’s Santa Maria Hospital, the largest in Portugal after she complained of shortness of breath. The hospital, however, transferred her to the Sao Francisco Xavier hospital as its neonatal department had no vacancy for new patients. She unfortunately went into cardiac arrest on the way. CPR was carried out on the way to the hospital.

At the second hospital, she underwent a C-section and the newborn was admitted to the neonatal care unit while she died.

This is an unfortunate sad news. True. But what followed deserves attention and is a learning for all of us. Marta Temido, the Health Minister of Portugal, took accountability for the tragic incident and resigned within five hours of the tragic incident. Temido in a sentence said that she “no longer has the conditions” to exercise the position.

I don’t want to get into the debate on whether she was responsible for the incident or not. What matters and important to us is that she took accountability for the situation and resigned. I see many corporate leaders taking credit for the successes but hesitate to take accountability for the failures. Taking accountability for the issues is an essential leadership trait. I am not saying that the leaders should resign. Giving up is not an option. But leaders must take accountability for the issues and protect their subordinates from issues.

Leaders should Pass the Credits of success to the team and take the blames of failures.

Let us continue our learning on ‘Shared Vision’ from where we left, how to develop a compelling ‘shared vision’?

The first step in creating a solid shared vision is to be clear about what you hope to achieve. Your vision is your destination. The strategy that you follow to reach it is your journey. It’s important not to confuse the two.

According to British/American author and motivational speaker, Simon Sinek

“Vision is a destination — a fixed point to which we focus all effort. Strategy is a route — an adaptable path to get us where we want to go.”

Create something bigger than you — something others can relate to, believe in and even carry forward once you’re gone. Your vision is the sum of why you went into business in the first place, and what form your company takes to share that mission with the world.

You have to ground this vision in reality, though. It's crucial to be practical up front, in addition to engaging in a bit of dreaming.

A good example of this is Google, whose organizational vision is “to provide access to the world’s information in one click”. Although they have expanded their business into different areas, Google’s vision has become so much of a reality that their company name has become a verb, googling, that is synonymous with searching for information. This is the power of a strong vision.

As your organization grows, you’ll quickly discover that you can’t be everywhere at once. To help your company and your vision expand effectively, you need to surround yourself with people who have an even more personal connection to that vision than most.

These vision ambassadors have regular job functions, but their responsibilities also include cultivating buy-in and enthusiasm. They keep the rest of the team’s eyes on the bigger, long-term picture.