The Power of Accountability to Transform Leadership

Linda Galindo is a speaker, author and executive coach.

I coach executives and speak on accountability for a living, work built on refusing to look away from what everyone else pretends not to see. Years ago, while serving on a nonprofit board, the largest donor walked in and told us who he wanted seated, expecting our nomination process to step aside for him. I said, “Hold up, we have a process. Are we going to run it?”

A colleague backed me up, and I brought it to the CEO and said, “Reset this, tell us the truth about whether we are following the process.” She had a direct conversation with him, and the process held. It was a good outcome. He later targeted me until I was off that board. I count it as a win: the process became fair, and stayed that way.

That experience shows up now in how I choose clients. I stopped taking on anyone who wants everyone else held accountable while refusing to see their own part in the problem. I have turned down income because of that line, and what I have gained instead is a smaller, higher quality circle of people willing to be clear-eyed.

A recent prospective client wanted an accountability program until I named her own role in the problem, and the conversation ended there. I have watched the same pattern again and again: a consultant comes in for a reorg, and the reorg leaves the real accountability problem untouched.

I know this work sticks because clients call years later. A city deputy manager I coached reaches out to describe the moment she names an excuse for what it is. That is the whole aim: giving people a way of seeing they cannot unsee, and carrying it forward long after our work ends.

Linda Galindo is a speaker, author and executive coach in California.
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