My leadership team members are great at holding their direct reports accountable, but they completely freeze up when it comes to holding their fellow peers on the leadership team accountable for missed Rocks or late deliverables. How do I build peer-to-peer accountability?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When leadership team members refuse to hold each other accountable, they are suffering from a lack of trust. It is easy to hold direct reports accountable because of the hierarchical reporting relationship, but peer-to-peer accountability requires vulnerability and the courage to lean into uncomfortable conflict. To build this capability on your team, you must change how you review progress during your weekly Level 10 Meeting. When reviewing the Rock sheet, if a peer is off track on a Rock for two weeks in a row, it should automatically be dropped down to the Issues list for IDS. This removes the personal bias and makes the accountability programmatic. During the IDS session, the owner of the issue must facilitate a transparent conversation about why the Rock is slipping and what support is needed. Encourage your team to use the Trust Equation by focusing on helpfulness rather than criticism. Frame the discussion around helping their peer succeed rather than pointing out their failure. When the team sees that calling out a late Rock leads to constructive problem-solving and peer support rather than punishment or defensiveness, they will begin to embrace peer-to-peer accountability as a tool for collective success.