Accountability Isn’t Punishment

Happy Thursday,

Ever felt your stomach knot before a “performance chat”? You’re not alone. Many leaders dread or even dodge holding people accountable to expected performance standards, let alone holding them to the highest standards. It’s often because we confuse accountability with punishment. But when done well, accountability isn’t punishing; it can be motivating and even inspiring. How? Well, let’s dive into it.

🧠 LEARN something.

Holding people accountable is part and parcel of leadership. But it feels uncomfortable because we often confuse accountability with punishment or blame. But accountability isn’t about punishment, blame or chest poking. It’s about clarity, consistency, good communication and mutual understanding. A useful reframe is to think of accountability conversations less as “accountability chats” and more as “clarity chats.” Because at the human level, people don’t hate being held accountable; they hate being treated unfairly, made to feel small, incompetent or useless. More so, they hate being blindsided or left in the dark until they are suddenly told they are doing a terrible job. That is what gets people’s backs up, makes them defensive and makes those conversations hard. Most people don’t actually mind being challenged to stretch and grow, as long as the path is clear and the rules are fair. That is motivating, not guilt-inducing.

One way to enable this kind of accountability is through explicit agreements. Leaders often assume people know what good looks like or what quality or standards are expected of them. But that is rarely true, especially if you have inexperienced people still mastering the role. Even if they are experienced, everyone interprets things like standards, quality, diligence and urgency through their own lens and personality differences. When you focus on explicit agreements about the task and standards, the talk shifts away from the person and onto the agreement, forces a real conversation and creates mutual commitment, rather than head nodding and saying “yes” to move the conversation along or not look silly for not understanding. This simple principle helps build clarity of expectations, transparency and fairness from the start. Then, if things don’t go to plan, mistakes happen or standards are not met, you can bring them back to the agreement without risking personal judgement, attack or a counterattack.

🤔 REFLECT on an idea.

Accountability without clarity just feels like unjustified and unfair criticism. When people understand the standards, they can rise to meet them. When they don’t, they end up guessing, and that breeds anxiety, not excellence. The real question is whether the standards are actually understood or just assumed to be understood.

😊 SMILE a little.

Ah, performance expectations… best delivered retroactively, preferably with a bit of confusion, a hint of disappointment, and a signature look of ‘I am sure we talked about this’😂

✅DO IT to get results.

In your next 1:1 or team meeting, pick one key task and co-create the definition of what ‘excellent’ looks like with the person doing it. Use questions like, ‘What does excellent look like here?’, ‘How will we know we’ve hit it?’ or ‘How will we know if you’re drifting off track?.’ Then write down a few bullet points of what you both agree on and set clear check-ins on those commitments. Be open and transparent that you want to shift accountability from ‘me judging you’ to ‘us honouring the agreement we made.’ Ten minutes doing this now may save hours or days of confusion, conflict and disappointment later.

🗓️ What’s your plan for Mental Health Awareness Week?

By the way, what’s your plan for Mental Health Awareness Week at work, 6–12 October? How about delivering a power-hour session on performance-focused mental health, or stress and burnout prevention? Or running a brainstorming session on creating a culture that goes beyond posters and slogans? Reach out and we can share some ideas!

🌱 How we can support you and your team.

We provide strategic leadership solutions tailored to align with your business strategy, size, and budget. We can support your with:

• 1:1 Leadership and Performance Coaching

• Team Coaching, for high performing teams

• 1:1 Health & Lifestyle Coaching for busy stressed leaders.

• Workshops, offsites and team development.

• Or our flagship individual Leadership Coaching Programs.

Kia pai tō wiki

Kenny Bhosale

CEO & Founder, The Bridge Leaders