Compassionate Accountability Is A Force Multiplier

Maya Angelou is famous for saying, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” It’s a force multiplier.

With AI and automation, ever-increasing pressure to perform, and heightened tension in our workplaces, Angelou’s observation has never been more relevant. The human relationships at the center of it all are dependent on Compassionate Accountability – feeling valuable, capable, and responsible.

The best interactions with peers, supervisors, and our leaders help us feel more valuable, more capable, and more responsible than we did before. So what do these people do and say that is so special?

Compassionate Accountability is a Force Multiplier

When the pressure is on, it’s tempting to believe that we can’t have it all, that we can’t build strong relationships and achieve the highest standards of performance at the same time. So we give in to the false choice that we have to choose between them. Out of desperation, we make threats, we compromise to keep the peace, or we take over to make sure it gets done right. Then, we make excuses for our behavior even while we pick up the pieces from the mounting collateral damage.

Nobody should have to choose between compassion and accountability. When we treat people as valuable, capable, and responsible, we break free from that false choice and create a win-win.

Compassionate Accountability is a force multiplier. When people feel valuable, capable, and responsible, they give more discretionary energy, support each other, work better together, take more initiative, care more about company goals, take pride in their work, and hold each other accountable for excellence.

1. After interactions with my boss/supervisor, I feel more valuable as a human being.
2. After interactions with my boss/superior, I feel more capable and empowered.
3. After interactions with my boss/superior, I feel a greater sense of ownership and responsibility.

Each question can be answered with this scale: 1=Stronly disagree, to 5 = Strongly Agree. With each question, ask for specific examples of behaviors that support their answers.

Business will always be about relationships. Relationships thrive on Compassionate Accountability because people want to feel valuable, capable, and responsible.

Would your leaders benefit from learning how to do Compassionate Accountability? We can help.

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