Principles of Leadership- Practice Accountability Part 2

 

This is Chuck Rapp with Multiply, a podcast to provide a word of encouragement for village church planters and leaders.

During 2022, my theme has been “10 Principles of Spiritual Leadership”. Today we complete the ninth principle which is Practice Accountability.

I closed my prior episode by saying, “Effective leaders have the courage to hold others responsible when they have done wrongly.” Today, we will discuss how good and godly leaders respond to serious mistakes and failures. I offer the following nine points for consideration.

1. Determine, is the situation serious? Not every situation is severe. Leaders neither ignore

problems nor over-react to them. Ask for wisdom from God and also consider seeking the

counsel of a mentor.

2. Meet with those involved and determine the cause … not only what happened, but why? Often,

understanding the “why” will not only help solve the problem but also help avoid similar future

occurrences.

3. Work with the individual(s) to determine what should have been done. Many times, those

responsible for the mistake know what should (or should not have) been done. Engage them in

the review process; listen to their thoughts and ideas.

4. Make it an opportunity for learning. Turn mistakes into a teaching opportunity.

5. Work with the individual(s) to determine what needs to be done to correct it. Here is an

important point. In most situations, do not try to fix it for them. Let them correct the situation;

they will learn much better if they have to do the work to correct the problem.

6. Make it a corrective experience. As I shared a few weeks ago in the episode about providing

feedback, “As leaders, the goal of our feedback is redemptive; it is intended to correct or

restore.”

7. Do “damage control”. By this, I mean that the leader needs to assess the nature and extent of

the problems resulting from the mistake. Who has been impacted? Are relationships damaged?

Has the reputation of the organization suffered? Are apologies needed? The leader needs to be

accountable to see that the necessary action steps occur (though he / she may not be the

person responsible to do each one).

8. Whenever possible, let the person who failed do the activity again in order to make the proper

corrections. This is part of the learning process. (see #4 above)

9. In extreme cases removal may be in order, e.g., gross and willful insubordination, recurring

failure without effort to change, or repeated integrity lapses. Courage may be required to do

what is best for the mission or the organization.

This has been a word of encouragement for Village Church Planters.