The Benefits of Sharing Responsibility Within Teams

“We aren’t just shifting the paradigm around work and leadership. We’re upgrading our humanity.” – Lori Hanau, Founder & Principal of Global Round Table Leadership

Have you ever wanted to gain or improve a skill but lacked the motivation to do so – or didn’t know where to start? While it’s possible to grow on your own, having a support system to serve as a mirror, cheerleader, and confidante when developing new skills and building new capacities is an enormous gift and wise practice. 

Our Compassionate Accountability Process (CAP) is a teaming and cultural development tool and practice that helps members of your ensemble learn how to share responsibility and meaning in each others’ growth, successes, and, yes, even mistakes! It’s a key part of The Shared Leadership Journey™, our leadership training program.

What is “Compassionate Accountability”?

First, having compassion means being deeply understanding of others’ journeys. It means knowing that we bring our whole selves to the workplace with all of our talents, gifts, experiences, flaws, and trauma. Coming from a place of empathy allows us to be vulnerable with one another and make space for how the fullness of our humanity will show up.

Accountability is about responsibility, holding ourselves and each other to our intentions and commitments. It’s the willingness to share in the duties and hard work that growth requires, knowing that as we support the development of our colleagues, our collective evolution is strengthened. 

We intentionally bundle these two concepts together because compassion on its own doesn't necessarily contribute to changes in behaviors or attitudes, and accountability on its own can become an inhumane and toxic driver. When woven together, they create a balanced and healthy support system for learning, growth, and change.

About Our Compassionate Accountability Process (CAP)

Knowing how to engage in healthy communication with your team can help you lead relationally, rather than from the “power-over/power-under” dominance model that we’re used to.

CAP creates space to pause, reflect, and learn together while supporting culture change from multiple perspectives: team(s), small groups, and individuals.

We work with teams to identify strengths and places to grow stronger, establish practices rooted in our Shared Leadership Framework™, and processes to hold each other accountable to these practices so that you learn and adapt together over time.

We also support teams by co-creating curated pairs or trios, and a consistent schedule for Compassionate Accountability sessions. We provide concrete steps to develop personalized practices that support individual and team growth, as well as agendas that foster trust, build relationships, solve problems, and celebrate progress along the way. It’s a practice that supports your development at the individual, interpersonal and systems levels of awareness.

Key Outcomes of the Compassionate Accountability Process

Our Compassionate Accountability Process provides an empowering frame for everything from strategic planning and visioning, to peer-to-peer leadership mentoring and business model innovation. CAP is just one part of our Shared Leadership Framework™, helping infuse values-aligned performance measures into your everyday activities.

Critical outcomes of implementing CAP in your company are:

• Deeper relationships and increased trust

• Higher performance at all levels

• Mission-aligned organizational practices and measures 

• Culture of innovation, wholeness, purpose, and accountability

In the workplace, culture often sets the tone for productivity and can heavily influence the outcome of your work. Understanding how to cultivate and embody a positive culture is critical for effective leadership. 

In short, CAP helps bring out the best in you and your team.

Are you interested in learning more leadership team development tools and group coaching practices like this one? Follow us on LinkedIn! We’ll help you stay up-to-date on strategies for sharing leadership and power, get inspired by executives and teams doing the work, and practice alongside a network that cares.