In organizations, what often looks like an accountability problem is actually the result of a cultural system leaders haven’t yet recognized, a recurring pattern of expectations, rewards, risks, and responses that quietly shapes how people behave.
The accountability problem
I was a week into an executive coaching engagement with Carl, the CEO of a bank, when he shared his frustration with me.
“They’re not being accountable for their work.”
As he described what he was experiencing, I understood why he felt that way. Conversations were happening behind closed doors instead of face to face. People stepped into responsibilities that belonged to someone else. Conflict lingered instead of being addressed. Trust was eroding, turnover was increasing, and the bank wasn’t performing the way he knew it could.
From where he sat, accountability seemed to be the obvious issue. He wanted to know how to solve it.
I said, “I get it. It’s tough when your people aren’t doing their jobs the way they’re supposed to. He nodded.
I said, “May I ask you a question?” Again, he nodded. “What are the behaviors that you’re seeing?”
He paused. Then he explained again. Only this time, he stopped describing what he believed about his team and began describing what they were actually doing:
- Talking about others instead of speaking directly
- Assuming roles that aren’t theirs
- Avoiding difficult conversations
- Failing to follow through
What if accountability isn’t the starting point?
Research in cognitive psychology helps explain why moments like this matter. Daniel Kahneman’s work shows that our brains are remarkably efficient at creating explanations from limited information. You don’t simply observe behavior. You instinctively assign meaning to it.
That ability serves you well much of the time. In leadership, however, it can cause you to move from observation to conclusion so quickly that you never become curious about what you’re actually seeing, and benefit from that curiosity.
Over the years, I’ve found myself asking leaders a deceptively simple question. “What behaviors are you seeing?”
Not…
Why are they doing that?
Or…
What’s wrong with them?
Simply…
What behaviors are you seeing?
One of the greatest gifts my four decades in education has given me is learning to separate a person’s worth from their behavior. A student’s acting out wasn’t their behavior. But it was telling me something. My responsibility wasn’t to excuse it or ignore it. My responsibility was to understand it well enough to help them learn a more productive way to respond.
I didn’t realize it then, but that lesson would shape the experience of every leader I’ve coached since.
What else might be true?
As Carl continued describing what he observed, I noticed something. Every example involved people responding to one another. They were talking about someone instead of talking to them, stepping into someone else’s responsibilities, and avoiding conflict. None of those behaviors happened in isolation.
They were a response to the culture people had learned to navigate.
They also seemed connected.
That made me wonder: What cultural conditions might make those behaviors understandable?
Not acceptable. Understandable. You can notice:
- What happens when someone raises a difficult issue directly?
- How clear are people’s responsibilities, really?
- What actions have people learned are rewarded?
- What have they learned is risky?
Those questions don’t remove accountability. They help you understand the environment in which accountability is either strengthened or weakened.
Edgar Schein, whose work on organizational culture has shaped leaders for decades, observed that genuine inquiry creates the conditions for people to tell you what’s really happening rather than what they think leaders want to hear.
I’ve found the same to be true. The moment you become genuinely curious, something changes. You stop asking, “Who’s the problem?” And begin asking, “What’s the cultural system shaping what I’m seeing?”
A different way forward
This is where cultural intelligence changes the conversation.
Curiosity invites you to loosen our certainty.
Contemplation helps you notice the assumptions you’re carrying.
Courage allows you to ask questions whose answers you may not expect.
Together, they help you discover another person’s context. And when you genuinely understand another person’s context, compassion naturally follows.
Not the kind of compassion that lowers expectations. The kind that allows you to hold high expectations while recognizing the human experience surrounding their behavior.
From there, collaboration becomes possible. People begin creating a shared understanding of what’s happening, what’s expected, and what needs to change. Meaningful work for all parties follows.
What changed
Months later, I asked Carl what had changed. I expected him to tell me about improved performance.
Instead, he smiled and quietly said, “I’m not operating out of fear anymore.” As our conversation continued, it became clear that something much deeper had shifted. Carl wasn’t reacting in fear to every behavior as evidence that someone lacked accountability. Instead of assuming he already knew what the behavior meant, he:
- Got curious about the cultural system surrounding it.
- Asked open-ended questions with genuine curiosity.
- Listened longer before drawing conclusions.
- Sought to understand the conditions the person was reacting to before deciding how to respond himself.
As he changed, his employees became more willing to tell him what they were actually experiencing. As those conversations became more honest, expectations became clearer, difficult issues surfaced sooner, and trust began to grow.
Accountability strengthened too. Not because people were told to “be more accountable,” but because the cultural conditions supporting accountability and the people became stronger.
The leadership shift
Before you decide someone isn’t taking responsibility…
Before you conclude your team has an accountability problem…
Ask yourself a different question: “Am I seeing an accountability problem, or am I seeing the effects of a cultural system I haven’t yet understood?”
That single question won’t answer everything. But it may help you see something you couldn’t see before. And sometimes, seeing differently is where meaningful change begins.
Human behavior makes more sense when you understand the cultural systems shaping it.
The Cultural Intelligence Micro Practice offers a simple framework for uncovering those systems and responding with greater clarity, curiosity, and effectiveness. 👉 Download the Cultural Intelligence Micro-Practice