So, what do you mean by “radical accountability”?

First up, accountability? You are my boss. You are ‘counting on’ me to deliver that result. For once, thank goodness, I am clear on what I am being paid for and know exactly what you expect of me. I have clarity and can now get on and deliver and will regularly account for my progress so you don’t have to come checking. That in itself is pretty radical: clarity of expectations, who it’s down to and accounting for progress. Though there is more to radical.

The meaning of “radical” becomes clear when you think of business and system failures like Carillion and Grenfell Tower.

Leaders must stop what they are doing and look to the horizon to spot threats and opportunities, and they must step out of routines and draft in help for extraordinary measures to neutralise the threat, or seize the opportunity.

At Carillion it was clear to many that the company’s practices were unsustainable, but almost nobody at board level recognised this truth and acted on it.

This is how organisations drift toward disaster. People ignoring the horizon and burying themselves in the detail and processes of the day.

Radical means “to the roots”. At root, to be accountable, a leader must shift her gaze from the day-to-day and up to the horizon, to see what’s coming and take action. This is where delegation comes in.

Non-radical accountability is accepting the status quo.

Such leaders excuse themselves from radical accountability by complaining how busy they are maintaining the status quo, maintaining the drift to disaster

To me radical accountability is liberation, exciting, radical!