13d • General discussion
The Ancient Formula for Leadership
Before we delve into this topic, we need to revisit a story. For the sake of time, I will paraphrase, but it's important to understand that since the beginning of time, a fundamental formula for leadership has existed.
This formula stems from responsibility. From responsibility comes authority, and when you possess both responsibility and authority, accountability always follows. This is an ancient leadership principle that modern society has largely forgotten.
If you feel that your leadership is lacking, if you wonder, "Why am I not being taken seriously?" or if you feel like you are doing all the right things but not seeing the desired results, it's likely because you are not adhering to this principle.
A Lesson from the Beginning
Let's go back to the story of creation, which, whether you believe in the Bible or not, offers profound insight into this principle. After man was created, God gave him a purpose, a task. He was brought every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens, and it was man's responsibility to name them. God presented the creatures and asked, "What do you think they should be called?" He gave the responsibility of naming to Adam.
Later, God created a partner for Adam. When Adam awoke to find her, he said, "This is at last bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman, because she was taken out of man." Adam named his partner, fulfilling his responsibility to name the things God brought to him. Along with this responsibility, God also tasked man with keeping the garden—to work the fields, bring chaos into order, and tend to the ground. No one questioned what Adam was doing because he had the authority to do it. He was given a task, and with that responsibility came the inherent authority to carry it out.
However, there was a boundary. God instructed Adam, "But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die." This restriction, this boundary, was given directly to Adam. The responsibility to uphold it was his.
Then came the deception. It is inferred that Adam communicated this boundary to Eve, because when the serpent questioned her, she replied, "We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” Adam had clearly told Eve about the boundary. The serpent, however, used deceptive words, and she ate the fruit.
She then gave it to Adam, and he also ate.
When God came to the garden, He didn't look for Eve; He called out for Adam. "Adam, where are you?" God knew where he was, but He sought the one to whom He had given the primary responsibility. When confronted, Adam's response was to blame another. "She made me do it," he essentially said, failing to take accountability.
The responsibility and the authority to maintain the boundary rested with Adam, and therefore, so did the accountability. This is the ancient principle: Responsibility + Authority = Accountability.
The Breakdown of Leadership in Modern Times
Oftentimes, we find ourselves in situations where we delegate responsibility to accomplish more. One of the first instances of delegation is mentioned in Exodus with Moses, who was advised to delegate tasks to others to free himself up for more critical duties. However, a crucial distinction is often missed: just because you delegate responsibility doesn't mean you relinquish accountability.
You grant limited authority, but you retain 100% of the accountability for the outcome.
In our current culture, when we delegate a task, we tend to delegate the authority along with it. We then revert to the "Adam and Eve" model when things go wrong, claiming, "I delegated that task to that person; they screwed up, so I am off the hook." You can see this pattern with CEOs, executives, and leaders in every company. When called to answer for failures, the common refrain is an excuse: "Well, I am not responsible for that."
The truth is, if you are in charge, you have the authority that was given to you, and you cannot alleviate the accountability that comes with it. This is why leadership is broken today—we have tried to eliminate accountability. This mindset is even taught in schools, where individuals learn they can get away with things, which lowers standards. When a child misbehaves at school, where is the accountability for the child and the parents? The parents are still responsible for that child until they are of an age to assume their own authority.
In a military context, this is crystal clear. If you are in charge of something, you are responsible for everything within your span of control. This doesn't mean you do every single task yourself; you delegate. You delegate responsibility to train others, granting them limited authority commensurate with their limited responsibility. Great responsibility comes with great authority; the two are inseparable.
Assessing Your Own Authority
If you feel you are not being taken seriously in the workplace, ask yourself, "Do I really have the authority to do what I am doing?" I have found that most people operate in a place of assumed authority that they do not actually possess. Authority comes from responsibility. Unless you are responsible and accountable for something, you do not have the authority to do it.
People will recognize and submit to your appointed authority when they understand you are responsible for a task. This doesn't mean they will like you or agree with everything you say, but they will respect the responsibility given to you and the authority that accompanies it.
Often, people operate in roles where they lack real authority. For example, in the civilian sector of government work, the first line of supervision is often at the GS-12 level. They are explicitly responsible for supervising and developing their team. However, out of a desire to work less, this responsibility is often delegated to others who are not officially responsible. We abdicate our authority to them, and everyone can feel it. They may not be able to articulate it, but they know deep down that the person doesn't have the real authority. The system may support this dysfunction, but it doesn't make it right.
When a failure occurs at that lower level, the leader who delegated often reverts to blaming, saying, "I delegated it to them; I will hold them accountable." They refuse to assume their own accountability and say, "I delegated this; I made a mistake, and I will correct it." How often do you hear that? Rarely. Instead, we hear deflection.
Anytime you have to explain why something failed, you are being held accountable, whether you realize it or not.
Think about it: in your entire life, what have you had to explain that you weren't accountable for? I can't think of a single instance in my life where I had to answer for something I wasn't ultimately accountable for.
A Story of Abdicated Responsibility
I'll share a story from my time in Germany. I had some soldiers who went downtown to Nuremberg to drink. One soldier, who didn't drink, agreed to be the designated driver (DD). The three others delegated their safety and responsibility to him, giving him the authority to get them back safely.
On the way back, they picked up two more soldiers, making six people in a five-passenger car. The DD began driving the wrong way down one-way streets. The intoxicated passengers, not thinking clearly, panicked and demanded he stop. They ended up putting him in the trunk and a drunk person took the wheel, driving at high speeds for nearly an hour.
When they reached the base gate, they were stopped. The gate guard smelled the alcohol, and they were pulled over. The sober DD was discovered in the trunk. A couple of weeks later, this same soldier asked me to support his application for Officer Candidate School. He felt his master's degree made him a great leader. I refused. I told him he had no leadership skills because he was given responsibility and authority, which he then gave up. He did not take accountability for his failure to get everyone back safely. He could have accepted a traffic ticket for driving the wrong way, but instead, he allowed his perceived incompetence to be used against him, abdicated his responsibility, and let everyone else take the fall while he walked away "scot-free." He failed the fundamental test of leadership.
Conclusion: Reclaiming Accountability
If things in your life or at work are not going as you expect, it may be because you have given up your authority by abdicating your responsibility. Yet, you are still accountable. Parents, for example, are accountable for their children. In today's society, many shirk this, blaming others when something goes wrong. But if you made a poor judgment in leaving your child in someone's care, the fault is still yours. When the accountability piece is missing, the authority piece vanishes too.
You see this at all levels of government. Leaders fail to pass bills and then blame other parties instead of taking accountability. Imagine how different things would be if they looked in the mirror and said, "We failed because we didn't do what was necessary. We failed to do the right thing by the people."
Think back to the beginning: how different would the world be if Adam had simply said, "You gave me a task, and I failed you. I am sorry." When my children admit their mistakes, the consequence is less severe because they have demonstrated accountability.
I wonder what the world would look like if everyone embraced this simple principle: "I am responsible for this, so I will do my best work. I will operate within the authority I've been given, and whether it goes right or wrong, I will be accountable."
I believe the lack of accountability is a significant problem permeating our society and is the reason many organizations fail. The best organizations I have ever been a part of are those that ensure this formula—Responsibility + Authority = Accountability—is followed. When it is, there are far fewer problems.
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The Ancient Formula for Leadership
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