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JoDee Curtis (00:02)
When accountability is missing at work, everyone feels it. Deadlines slip, workloads become uneven, the most responsible people get burned out, and resentment quietly builds.

JoDee Curtis (00:23)
Welcome to The JoyPowered® Workspace Podcast, where we help people leaders embrace joy in the workplace. I’m JoDee Curtis, owner of Purple Ink, an HR consulting and talent development firm, and with me is my friend and co-host, Susan White, owner of Susan Tinder White Consulting, an HR consulting practice. Susan is also a senior executive collaborator with Purple Ink.

Our topic today is holding others accountable. That’s a topic that tends to make people a little uncomfortable but also has the potential to dramatically improve how our teams work together. Just saying those words out loud, “holding others accountable,” can create a little tension or maybe some angst with it. Because when most people hear accountability, they may think of getting in trouble or awkward conversations or conflict or being labeled as difficult or not a team player. And yet, when accountability is missing at work, everyone feels it. Deadlines slip, workloads become uneven, the most responsible people get burned out, and resentment quietly builds.

Before we can talk about holding others accountable though, let’s be really clear about what accountability actually means. Many organizations treat accountability as something that happens after something goes wrong. If you think about it, when… “you need to hold them accountable,” “you need to, you know, have an accountability plan.” I mean, that you hear those words when someone maybe is complaining that somebody’s not doing their job, right? So it’s — it can feel corrective or punitive and it’s associated with blame.

Research shows that around 80% of employees associate accountability only with negative consequences, not with clarity or support. But that definition really is far too small. True accountability is about honoring commitments. It’s about doing what you say you would do. It’s about meeting expectations that were clearly agreed upon and addressing gaps early so they don’t turn into bigger problems later. And accountability is not micromanagement. It’s not aggression. And it’s definitely not punishment. In fact, when accountability is done well, it strengthens our trust. It improves performance and it actually deepens relationships.

Susan White (03:34)
Wow, I love that thinking. I really think that when you have an environment where people are held accountable, people are given responsibilities and they’re trusted to achieve them and you reward great behaviors, right? So I love the shift in thinking and it is sad to think that 80% of people associate that word with punitive and I, you know, I think that’s real.

JoDee Curtis (03:47)
Right.

Susan White (03:56)
A lot of conversations about accountability immediately shift to the managers. So it’s kind of like manager speak. “Managers need to hold people accountable.” How many times have you heard leaders say that? Managers are responsible for accountability. “Managers should do something about so-and-so or about such-and-such not getting done.” And yes, you know, I think our point of view is that managers absolutely do play a critical role in creating a culture of accountability. But accountability just doesn’t always start at the top.

Because when accountability is only owned by the managers or owned by leadership, a few things can happen. Team members gossip instead of addressing issues directly. They can whine about it, complain about it, but they don’t feel like they own it. It’s the boss’s job. Managers can become and be seen as disciplinarians instead of as the true leader. And the team never really matures into a shared ownership model.

JoDee Curtis (04:53)
Yeah. Yeah. You know, I’ve mentioned before — maybe a few too many times — on the podcast about how much I love Patrick Lencioni. He’s one of my favorite authors. He’s one of my favorite speakers, I listen to his podcast…. And in his book, “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team,” he lists one of the five core dysfunctions as avoidance of accountability and his very strong belief that teams must hold one another accountable, not just rely on the leader.

I specifically remember reading that book and thinking, I never thought about that, a team holding others accountable. I — well, I shouldn’t say I never thought about a team holding others accountable, but I never… I always felt like the leader was ultimately responsible for it. And I didn’t understand the importance of a team holding others accountable, so where we don’t just rely on the leader.

But he outlines a pyramid of dysfunctions that show up again and again in teams. At the base of this pyramid is the absence of trust. So we really, before we go anywhere else, to have a successful team, we need the base of our relationship to include trust. Now that of course takes time to build that, right? The next level on the pyramid is a fear of conflict. And then the third one is a lack of commitment. And the fourth dysfunction is that avoidance of accountability.

So theoretically, we cannot go up the pyramid without going in order. In other words, if we start with trust, and then we invite and encourage a conflict as a positive conflict where we ask for differences of opinions, ideas, and goals. And then it can be easier to make a commitment to going forward, to setting the goal, to completing the project, et cetera. So if we build a base in those areas first, we are significantly more likely to hold others accountable, to be successful at it, and to be confident in doing so. I don’t take this lightly as we jumped into the conversation today about accountability without really exploring those first three principles. I’m gonna say them again: trust, inviting or encouraging positive conflict, and commitment.

Now, Lencioni defines avoidance of accountability as the tendency of team members to avoid calling one another on behaviors and performance that are detrimental to the team. And guess what? That’s easier when you don’t have trust or haven’t discussed conflicts or made a commitment to move forward together with the same goal or plan.

So notice what he’s saying there. He’s not talking about just leaders holding people accountable. He’s talking about peers holding peers accountable. Lencioni argues that the most effective accountability is peer to peer. When accountability only comes from the leaders, teams stay dependent and leaders become the bad guy instead of the guide. He even says that when teams avoid holding one another accountable, that standards drop, resentment increases, and high performers carry more than their fair share. Does that sound familiar? Because this isn’t theoretical. The data backs this up.

Research on mutual or peer accountability shows that teams where members hold one another accountable experience higher trust, stronger commitment, greater engagement, and better overall performance. In other words, teams that self-regulate perform better. And yet most teams do not do this well. I would argue that we probably skipped one or all of those first three principles, trust, conflict, and commitment, so accountability was much more difficult.

You know, let me give an example of this, Susan. Like, let’s say our team is responsible to be at work at 8 a.m. Right? And so let’s say there’s three of us on the team and one of them consistently shows up late and we start thinking “Our boss is not saying anything to them. Our leader is not holding them accountable to being here at eight o’clock.” So that may put more pressure on us to start answering the phone or getting busier right away when there’s less than the full team there. But if the — and the boss might not even be in the same room or the same area, and they might not even realize the person is not getting to work on time, but yet we do because we’re sitting right next to them or they’re in same room.

Susan White (10:49)
And you know what, it might not even matter to the boss. As long as the work gets done, the boss doesn’t really mind. It’s the coworkers who feel this resentment that they’re on time. Maybe we all should come in when we want to come in. That’s real.

JoDee Curtis (10:55)
Right. Yes, yes.

And if we could just gently say at times like, “Hey, you know, did you know we are supposed to be here at eight o’clock,” or kind of reminding them or asking them, “Hey, what’s, you know, we’ve been really busy in the first 15 minutes of the day and we need you here at to be on time so that it doesn’t overload us,” right? We don’t have to discipline them or punish them or we can just make comments that help us feel better and help the person understand that they need to be here at eight.

But Culture Partners conducted a large workplace study with more than 40,000 employees and found that 82% of people either avoid holding others accountable or they try and fail, which tells us this is not a skill that we’re naturally good at. And I don’t believe it’s because people don’t care. It’s because we’ve never really been taught how to do it well, especially with our peers.

Susan White (12:16)
You know, I was just reflecting on my history in my life of having worked on teams where I felt we were really high performing. And I think we had this accountability with each other because we trusted each other. We were committed. We were engaged. And I think about the teams I was on where we didn’t trust each other. And sometimes it was leadership that caused it. Sometimes it was because on the team we didn’t work at it. So I love that we’re addressing this topic today.

JoDee Curtis (12:36)
Right. Yeah.

Susan White (12:46)
Holding a peer accountable definitely is harder than holding a direct report accountable, right? We don’t have leverage. I can hear somebody saying, “You’re not the boss of me,” right? Peer accountability can trigger deeper fears, you know, “Who am I to say something?” So like, okay, I’m not their boss. Is it my place? Am I out of place? Am I out of line? I don’t want to damage this relationship. What if they get defensive? What if this backfires on me?

JoDee Curtis (12:57)
Yeah, yes.

Susan White (13:16)
Sometimes there’s confusion. You know, was the expectation clear? I think this is how it should be done, but maybe I’m misinterpreting. Was the deadline the person got really realistic? Is this a one-time miss or is it a pattern? But when we avoid responding to these questions, if we’re having these questions about a peer, if we think somebody’s letting our team down, the conversation, you know, need does not disappear. It just moves underground into side conversations, into frustration, into disengagement, resentment, sides, teams. People are — sometimes an employee feels like they’re on the outs because everybody else is united in their dislike of something they’re doing, but no one’s shared it with them. No one’s told them.

Research and organizational psychology consistently shows that unaddressed accountability issues do not fade. They fester. And here’s the irony. Avoiding accountability doesn’t preserve the relationship with teammates, it slowly erodes it. Because resentment replaces respect. When teams fail to hold one another accountable, leaders are forced into an uncomfortable role and the team loses its sense of shared responsibility. Peer accountability is not about control, it’s about protecting and developing and enriching the team.

So what does healthy accountability look like in practice? First, clarity comes before accountability. You can’t hold someone accountable for something that was never clearly defined or that they didn’t understand. So a lack of clarity is one of the top reasons accountability breaks down at work.

JoDee Curtis (14:54)
I do think, Susan, that that is a real key. I oftentimes say to people that expectation — setting expectations are the key to life, and really setting clear expectations. So even think about my example about being at work on time, right? That we may have gotten a clear message that we need to be there at eight o’clock, but this third person may have thought that my boss doesn’t really care if I get there at eight o’clock because they never say anything to me, so it’s probably not that big a deal. So I roll in at 8:10 or 8:15. It’s not a big issue. So clear expectations were not set about it.

Susan White (15:29)
Right. And just because it’s in our head, our filter is, it’s clear. The job posting was eight to five. The other person’s like, “Yeah, we’re shooting for eight.” Yeah, It’s our own filter. So healthy teams regularly check. What did we commit to? Who owns what? By when? And what does success look like? And I think as a leader of a team, talking about that is important so that everybody has a voice and that we get to understand each other. So just important.

Secondly, accountability is timely. The most effective accountability happens early, directly, and privately. Not six weeks later, not in that performance review discussion, not in a passive aggressive email. Yeah.

Third, accountability is relational, not transactional. Studies show that accountability is most effective in teams where trust already exists. People know each other, they trust each other, they believe feedback is meant to help, not harm, which really is trust. And that’s why accountability conversations actually strengthens trust when done well. They signal that I care about work, I care about you, I care about this team, and I care enough about you to have this conversation. One of the biggest barriers to accountability is simply not knowing what to say. So we need to keep it really practical.

JoDee Curtis (17:06)
Yeah, yeah, I like it.

Susan White (17:08)
What are some examples, do you think, of accountability language that’s clear, respectful, and team focused, JoDee?

JoDee Curtis (17:14)
Well, I like questions like, “Can we revisit what we agreed on last week?” or “When this deadline shifted, it impacted the rest of the team. Can we talk about how to prevent this going forward?” or maybe “Help me understand where this landed because I’m experiencing an impact on my work.” or one more, something like, “I want us to succeed together, and this feels like something we should discuss directly.”

Susan White (17:47)
What a nice entree. Because what you don’t hear there is blame or accusations or personal attacks. You’re talking about commitments we’ve made, the impact It’s having on me, and I want us to succeed. It’s a we here, right? So shared outcomes. When accountability conversations are direct and respectful, team health improves along with performance. And here’s an important principle that I think we both love: go to the person before going to the boss.

How often do people come to complain about somebody else? And if they go to each other first, because they care about each other first, and maybe they get it resolved. And if they don’t, they can kick it upstairs and say, we agree to disagree. Let’s take it to the boss. Healthy teams use leaders as support, not as referees or mediators. Even though accountability shouldn’t live only with the leaders, leaders still do play a role if we need to kick it there.

JoDee Curtis (18:44)
Right, right. And research shows that leader behavior is the single biggest influence on whether accountability exists on a team. So let me be clear about that. We’re not saying leaders aren’t responsible. They do have the biggest influence on it. But the team can help support that and leaders can help build that for the team. Because leaders set the tone by modeling accountability themselves, by admitting mistakes, by welcoming input or feedback, and reinforcing peer-to-peer conversations instead of shutting them down.

So great leaders don’t say, bring me every issue. They say, have you talked with them yet? Because strong teams don’t depend on positional power. They depend on shared ownership. And accountability is not about being harsh. It’s about being honest. Again, “Hey, I understand it’s our responsibility to be here at eight o’clock. What are your expectations about that?” And it’s about respecting your teammates enough to protect the standards you all depend on.

Patrick Lencioni, again, my guy, he reminds us that the strongest teams don’t wait for authority. They hold one another accountable because they care about the team more than their own comfort. And I’ll say it again, when accountability becomes shared, trust deepens, work gets better, and yes, joy at work increases.

So I’ll leave you with this reflection: where might avoiding an accountability conversation be costing your team more than having it ever would?

Susan White (20:52)
JoDee, as you know, we like to ask our guests JoyPowered® questions. So I’m gonna ask you, because I know this topic is so close to your heart, what is one small step people can do in this area to create more joy at work?

JoDee Curtis (21:04)
Yeah, I am going to say it again. I think the key is to set clear expectations. If people need to be at work at eight o’clock, make sure you say it. And I think we — and I say we, like me, I make assumptions at times, right? Like, like you said, well, it was in the job description that the work was eight to five but then it doesn’t appear that people care.

And in some work environments, believe me, I keep using it as an example, but I don’t really care when my people start work, right? But they’re not answering a 24-hour customer service line, right? Or, you know, it doesn’t say on our website that we’re all available at eight o’clock, right? So we have not set that expectation to our customers or clients.

But if they needed to be there at eight o’clock, we have to be sure we say the words, “It’s important for you to be here at eight o’clock,” and even “Here’s why,” “Here’s why it’s important,” so that people understand. So set clear expectations and don’t make assumptions that everyone knows the standard or the expectation.

Susan White (22:35)
And you know, so much of our focus today has been on the teams holding each other accountable. It doesn’t hurt for a team member, if they feel like somebody is not being responsible, that they are not following rules, whatever. Don’t assume that your version of what the rule is, is the rule. It doesn’t hurt to bounce it off of your boss, not that you’re asking her or him to do anything for you. Just say, want to understand. I’m going have a conversation with somebody because I don’t know, they don’t realize the impact it’s having on me. What is the rule here? Or how do you define it? Or what’s your expectation? So, you know, think about assumptions and before you decide that you’re going to hold somebody accountable for something that you think is the rule, make sure you know what is the rule.

JoDee Curtis (23:19)
Yeah. Yeah.

Susan White (23:21)
JoDee, it’s time for our listener question. The following question came from a listener in our February 2026 podcast. We welcome questions from any of our listeners anytime. So today’s question relates to the Family and Medical Leave Act.

“An employee is pregnant but does not quite qualify for FMLA yet. The company allows her to take a company sponsored unpaid leave. After she returns to work for a short time, shortly after reaching the required time and hours to qualify for FMLA, she requests an FMLA leave since it’s still in the 12-month window. How would you handle this situation?”

JoDee Curtis (24:00)
Yes, FMLA, although it’s been around for a long time, the rules are tricky and you really have to pay attention to the parameters of the act. But yes, she may be entitled to FMLA leave, even though she already took company sponsored unpaid leave, as long as she became FMLA eligible before the new FMLA leave begins – which, sounds like our listener is saying that happened — and the reason for the leave is still qualifying and within the applicable 12-month window. So to clarify what eligibility means, the employee must, at the time leave starts, have 12 months of service and have 1,250 hours worked in the preceding 12 months and work at a covered location, which includes 50 employees within 75 miles.

Note the earlier non-FMLA leave that they approved for her does not retroactively become FMLA and she still needs to be under a doctor’s care or the child does and have a doctor’s order that she needs to be off for her own or the baby’s care. Eligibility is determined at the date the leave begins, not when the medical event occurred.

Susan White (25:41)
I can only imagine that this letter was written by somebody in the company that’s like, wait a minute, we gave her that time off and we did it, so we did without her and now she wants her 12 weeks. I can see that that would cause some consternation, but great question because you want to make sure you’re in compliance and she’s eligible for it, the organization needs to respond. So glad that our listener wrote that question in.

JoDee Curtis (26:04)
Yeah, yeah. And now it’s time for in the news. In 1994, I left my then current employer to work for a client, but a year later, I returned to my initial employer, so I was considered a boomerang employee.

In a new survey on boomerang jobs by My Perfect Resume of 1,100 plus workers, they found that while 55% see boomerang jobs as a smart career move, 37% say it’s just playing it safe, and many have serious reservations about going back to a previous employer.

A couple of key findings from this report: 67% would consider going back if leadership had changed, and another 67% cite better work-life balance as a key factor to returning, but 19% say bad memories alone would stop them from returning. But one thing is very clear: 98% say leaving on good terms matters, so no question about that. And returning to a past employer isn’t about loyalty. It’s a calculated decision shaped by trust, culture, and whether workers believe anything has actually changed. And that’s according to Dr. Jasmine Escalera, career expert at My Perfect Resume.

And I’ll add that when I returned to my former employer, I returned in a different role. So I didn’t leave the organization because I was mad or upset or… you know, I had a great job and a great career, but that I had another opportunity to learn some different skills, ironically, in HR. Like, I was an accountant and I went to work for a client where I was responsible for all accounting and HR and office operations. And I had great experience doing that. And then my former employer asked if I would come back and have somewhat of a similar role where I had more, significantly more responsibilities in HR. So I left for a different reason, but it can be okay to go back.

Susan White (28:50)
Absolutely.

JoDee Curtis (28:51)
Yeah.

Well, thanks for listening today. And if you’re SHRM certified, you can get credit for listening to this episode. To get the code, go to getjoypowered.com slash SHRM and fill out a short evaluation. When you finish the evaluation, you’ll get the code and a link to a proof of participation certificate. Now this code expires on June 15th, 2027. Again, that’s getjoypowered.com slash shrm to get the code and it will expire on June 15th, 2027.

Tune in next time and as always, make it a JoyPowered® day.

Susan White (29:42)
Thank you.