My Job is To Hold Your Feet To the Fire

Accountability is a critical leadership competency.  As an executive coach, it is my role to help my clients to maximize their performance. Most clients are CEOs, business owners or senior executives.  It is incumbent upon them to set high expectations for their organizations and to walk the talk.  It is lonely at the top of an organization.  The CEO role sounds a lot sexier than it is.  Ultimately the CEO is on the hook for the decisions of an organization and all those who report up to them. 

One of the most important roles I play as an executive coach is to be an accountability partner to my clients.  I probe on their action plans and commitments during each session and take notes as to what they say they will do.  I end each session with action items.  I ask my clients what are the one to three things that they will commit to doing between now and our next session? I begin each coaching session having them reflect on what is new since we last met and then we dig into to their achievement of the commitments. 

Did you have the tough conversation with Lisa? 

Did you hold skip level meetings?

Did you write the handwritten thank you notes to the implementation team members? 

Did you call the new customer to see how things are going?

Did you take last Friday afternoon off to spend quality time with your family?

The items vary between clients, but all action items are important.  As a leader it is important to set the right tone and expectations in the organization.  When the top leader dodges accountability and does not follow through, they set a poor example for the rest of the organization.  My job is to hold their feet to the fire.  It seems like a simple enough role, but if the executive coach doesn’t play that role who will?  Maybe the board of directors, but the CEO and board relationship is often quite awkward.  Most CEOs sit on the board, so they are peers as well as accountable to the board.  Their direct reports as accountability partners creates a different dynamic as well. 

The most effective senior executives that I work with have a high say/do ratio.  They are execution focused and stay true to their commitments.  On the flip side, I have had my share of coaching nightmares where clients have been all talk and no action.  It is usually easy to figure this out during the first or second coaching meeting.  I always end my first coaching sessions with a homework assignment.  A simple task to write out answers to a list of questions and to create a time pie that outlines how they spend their time.  When the homework is not completed prior to the next meeting, I take that as a major warning sign of a lack of commitment.  This has served as a very good litmus test for coaching commitment.

I thrive on being an accountability partner for my clients.  We all have competing priorities, but as a coach I help my clients to prioritize and to model the behaviors they expect from the rest of their teams and organizations.  Accountability partner is one of the most critical roles that an executive coach can play for a CEO or senior leader.