3 decades, countless boardrooms, one truth: "accountability" paves the way to success.
In 2010, the world had just survived a major financial crisis:
➡️ Banks were on high alert.
➡️ Banks had to share a monthly report with the SEC (US Securities Exchange Commission). That report funneled up to the President of the United States.
➡️ There was a lot of scrutiny of the books.
In the middle of all of this, I was working at a large bank.
One of my team members had made a massive mistake.
➡️ I was on the hook because I was his manager.
➡️ I went in front of the C-Suite to explain what happened.
3 things were at stake:
📌 Will we be fined?
📌 Will our stock price sink?
📌 Will it damage our customers ability to trust us?
I was there to manage the RISK.
My specialty.
Taking a deep breath, I approached the C-Suite:
✅ I didn’t defend or deflect that a mistake was made.
✅ I presented data. I presented solutions on how to move forward.
✅ I presented controls so this wouldn’t happen again.
It was nerve wracking and risky because we were building a new risk management platform. It was about to go live and our entire program would be cancelled if we didn’t address this hiccup.
A hard lesson to learn.
📌 Even though processes were automated, we made sure there was a human doing checks and balances so the system wasn’t compromised again.
Here is what I learned about accountability:
✅ Look your clients in the eye, acknowledge the mistake happened. The C-Suite, since that incident, would bring me in to give the real truth. My team felt safe. My board felt safe - it was a win-win on all sides. We never had another breach—under my watch—for the next several years on Wall Street. It actually cemented my reputation for integrity and accountability.
✅ There was a downside to my being the truth-sayer in the room. Not everyone was a fan. It was a learning moment for me too. How things are received is important.
✅ I found that I role modeled what open dialogue could look like. My team felt safe to come to me with ideas, to innovate, and to take big risks and fail under my watch. So for example, during the pandemic, my team was upfront about sick family members. As a result, I was equally upfront with clients about when projects would be delivered.
Some of the most successful leaders in the world have great conflict resolution and negotiation skills.
🎯I always try to create a win for every stakeholder at the table.
🎯When is a time you had two big responsibilities - protect your team and get your client to trust you?
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