For true change to happen, we have to be accountable
It’s time to hold leader accountable for their actions says Anna Sofat
On Saturday 13th February 2021, Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial once again delivered a verdict that was expected but still disappointing. The court formally acquitted the former president – a man who in his 2016 election campaign boasted that he could “stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and not lose any voters” – of the charge of inciting insurrection. This result means that he could stand again if he so wished. Impunity, after all, has been the hallmark of Trump’s presidency. And yet, notwithstanding this catastrophic outcome, could an enlightenment now be about to dawn? Is accountability the new reality?
Dr Vince Molinaro argues in his book Accountable Leaders that “accountability ultimately differentiates great leaders from mediocre ones”, something the Trump administration has amply proved. But in parading such high-profile mediocrity across the world stage, he has also highlighted the need to step up, to unify around progress and to be accountable as individuals or as businesses.
And for many, these past four years have paradoxically been the clarion call to do just that. Social justice movements have found new power, individuals have found purpose linking together to help their communities during the pandemic and businesses seem to have finally moved into a space where they are prepared to harness their immense power to galvanise real positive change — and to mandate that through their cultures.
For business strategist and co-founder of the Black British Business Awards, Melanie Eusebe the crucial need for visible measurement of progress to embed diversity in business has been long overlooked. Perhaps ‘conveniently so’ in many quarters, one might argue. As she says, “what gets measured gets done”, and if we are to make any meaningful and significant progress then we must use proper KPIs for diversity and sustainability to keep ourselves accountable as leaders and businesses.
It’s heartening to see some of the biggest corporations finally getting the message that it’s not enough to virtue signal, to have a ‘side-line initiative’ complete with shiny folders and lots of rhetoric, but little real traction. True change is about breaking for cover and allowing people to truly be able to see if you’ve made progress at the core of your business model, and how much - whether that’s Microsoft adding $150m to its diversity and inclusion investments, Facebook committing to employing 30 per cent more people of colour in leadership positions or Starbucks, which recently directly connected the building of inclusive and diverse teams to the pay of its executives. Bold moves indeed and invigorating after so long playing in the margins.
Molinaro makes a key point though to keep uppermost in our minds: anyone can lead when times are good. And therein lies the crux of accountability: it’s hard work. Not to mention disruptive and sometimes uncomfortable. It challenges. It may actually be the most challenging thing of all in a world where competing priorities are not easily reconciled, and the undertow of capitalism is still bias and a relentless Milton Friedman-esque insistence on ‘growth at all costs’.
Are we ambitious as leaders? Are we ambitious for our teams? Are we ambitious for human beings? These are the questions that we should be asking. And they are no philosophical conceit — instead, where we stand and whether we stick our heads above the parapet, is crucial to our roles, and our futures, as leaders and changemakers, businesses and governments.
And so, we return to the idea that those who will not push through the comfort zone, go beyond what they know, take responsibility for their actions, hold themselves and others to their greatness and step up to create meaningful vision and change, will die on the hill of ‘halfway there’. A place of mediocrity that serves no one, other than an unsatisfactory status quo. If Trump has shown us anything it is surely this.
The world we live in now continues to change, dramatically and quickly; the leaders of today and tomorrow will need to be stronger than ever, and able to respond both at the individual and organisational level. Accountability doesn’t happen on its own and leaders will have to drive it to become an organisational norm.
At a personal level, Molinaro notes that leadership is an obligation and a key part of community — and crucially, perhaps ultimately, it is a decision.
As such, it is one we must make – lest we witness any further heart sinking verdicts.