Leveraging Strategy and Followership
Accountability is often viewed as a top-down process—a tool for leaders to ensure employees meet expectations. But what if we reframed accountability as a shared culture rooted in trust? A culture where both leaders and followers take responsibility for success, collaborate openly, and engage meaningfully in achieving organizational goals.
To create this kind of culture, we must go beyond traditional leadership-centric models. Instead, we must recognize the role of strategy as the foundation for building trust and bridging the gap between leaders and followers. A clear strategy acts as the glue that aligns goals, defines expectations, and fosters collaboration. Without a strong strategic foundation, trust falters, and accountability becomes a struggle.
In this blog, we’ll explore how trust, grounded in strategy, can transform your organization, focusing on three essential principles:
- Setting clear performance expectations.
- Establishing transparent communication channels.
- Implementing a Q&A culture of followership.
1. Setting Clear Performance Expectations
Accountability begins with clarity, and clarity starts with strategy. A well-defined strategy outlines the organization’s goals, priorities, and measures of success, providing a shared roadmap for both leaders and followers.
Without strategic alignment, accountability efforts can feel arbitrary or disconnected. Leaders might set expectations that seem misaligned with the broader vision, creating confusion and eroding trust.
To counter this, leaders and followers must work together to translate strategy into actionable performance expectations. For example:
- A leader might outline a project’s objectives but leave the specifics vague. A strategic follower might respond with, “To align this with our broader goals, could we confirm the key outcomes you’re prioritizing?”
This collaboration ensures that expectations are grounded in the organization’s strategy, fostering trust by demonstrating that everyone is working toward a shared vision.
When strategy guides the process, accountability becomes less about enforcement and more about alignment. Leaders and followers both take ownership of ensuring that expectations are clear and actionable.
2. Establishing Transparent Communication Channels
Clarity is only effective when paired with transparency. A clear strategy provides the foundation for trust, but transparent communication ensures that strategy is accessible and understood by everyone.
In leadership-centric organizations, communication often flows in one direction—from leaders to followers. This model assumes that leaders have all the answers and followers simply need to execute. But this approach overlooks the valuable insights followers can bring and creates blind spots in decision-making.
Transparent communication channels address this by fostering a two-way exchange. Leaders share strategic context openly, and followers ask questions to fill in gaps or challenge assumptions.
For example:
- When introducing a new initiative, a leader might explain how it ties into the broader strategy. A follower, feeling empowered to engage, might ask, “How does this initiative impact our other priorities, and should we adjust timelines to stay aligned?”
These conversations build trust by reinforcing that everyone’s perspective matters. Leaders trust their teams to engage with strategy thoughtfully, and followers trust leaders to provide the information they need to succeed.
Transparency ensures that the organization’s strategy isn’t just a document—it’s a living, breathing guide for daily decisions.
3. Implementing a Q&A Culture of Followership
A culture of accountability thrives when followers feel empowered to engage with strategy actively. This is where a Q&A culture of followership becomes essential.
In this culture, followers are encouraged to ask thoughtful questions, seek clarity, and propose ideas that align with the organization’s strategy. This isn’t about challenging authority—it’s about ensuring that everyone is pulling in the same direction.
For instance:
- A follower might ask, “This decision supports one strategic goal, but it seems to conflict with another. Can we explore how to reconcile the two?”
This kind of questioning serves two purposes:
- It counters leadership bias by introducing fresh perspectives that leaders may have overlooked.
- It reinforces strategy as the foundation for accountability, ensuring that decisions are consistent with the organization’s goals.
When leaders welcome these questions, they demonstrate trust in their teams’ ability to think strategically. In turn, followers feel valued and empowered to contribute meaningfully, creating a virtuous cycle of trust and collaboration.
The Role of Strategy in Building Trust
Trust is often seen as a purely relational concept, but in reality, it’s deeply tied to strategy. A clear strategy provides the shared understanding that bonds leaders and followers. It answers critical questions:
- Where are we going?
- How will we get there?
- What role does each person play?
When everyone in the organization has confidence in the strategy, trust naturally follows. Leaders trust that followers are aligned with the bigger picture, and followers trust that leaders are making decisions with the organization’s best interests in mind.
Here’s how strategy ties it all together:
- Clear expectations are grounded in strategic goals, ensuring alignment and fairness.
- Transparent communication keeps everyone informed about how strategy evolves and how it impacts their work.
- A Q&A culture ensures that strategy remains dynamic, adapting to new insights and challenges.
By anchoring trust in strategy, organizations can move beyond leadership-centric models and create cultures where accountability is a shared responsibility.
Creating a Culture of Accountability in Your Organization
Building an accountability culture isn’t a one-time initiative; it’s an ongoing process that requires strategic alignment, open communication, and active engagement from both leaders and followers.
When strategy serves as the foundation, trust becomes more than just a value—it becomes a practical tool for fostering collaboration and achieving success. Followership plays a critical role in this process, balancing leadership bias and driving innovation through thoughtful questioning and active participation.
The result? A workplace where accountability is shared, trust is strengthened, and everyone is empowered to contribute to lasting success.
Are you ready to create an accountability culture grounded in trust and strategy? Let’s start the conversation. Reach out to learn how strategy and followership can transform your organization.
