I find myself acting as the referee on our leadership team because my department heads refuse to call each other out when they fail to meet their targets or complete their Rocks. How do I transition my team from relying on my authority to practicing true peer-to-peer accountability?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When you are the only person holding your leadership team accountable, you are not running a leadership team; you are managing a group of individuals. Real scale only happens when your leaders have the courage to hold each other accountable without you stepping in to referee.

To build this dynamic, you must first create a high level of vulnerability-based trust. If your leaders are afraid of looking weak or being attacked, they will never risk calling out a peer. Use the Trust Equation to assess where your team stands, focusing on lowering self-orientation and increasing intimacy and reliability.

Next, make performance completely visible. Your weekly Level 10 Meeting™ Scorecard and Rock sheet must be clear and objective. There should be no place to hide. When a weekly metric is red or a Rock is off-track, it is not your job to point it out. The scorecard does the pointing.

During the meeting, if a leader misses a commitment, wait. Resist the urge to speak first. Let the silence hang in the room. This silence creates a healthy social pressure. Encourage your other team members to ask the hard questions: What is the plan to get this back on track, and how does this delay impact the rest of our operations?

If a peer conflict arises, do not let them bring it to your office privately. Force them to address it during the IDS® portion of your Level 10 Meeting™. By solving these issues in front of the entire team, you establish a standard where peer feedback is expected, respected, and normalized, freeing you from the referee seat.