Empowerment Isn't a Gift - It's a System
Leading for Accountability When Outcomes Aren't Certain
I had a conversation this week with a close friend — a strong operator and seasoned sales leader. We were talking about forecasting, and he shared a common challenge: his team was struggling to commit to their numbers.
Not because they were disengaged. Not because they didn't care.
Because they were afraid.
Their hesitation wasn’t about the work. It was about the accountability. If they committed to a number and missed it, they feared they’d be blamed. So, they avoided committing altogether.
And that left him stuck. No clarity. No real sense of ownership. Just a forecast full of caveats and shrugged shoulders.
He said, "I could make them commit. A lot of sales leaders do. But then I end up holding people accountable for numbers they don’t actually control."
It’s a powerful insight. Because it exposes a flaw in how most leaders think about trust and accountability.
The Default Move: Pressure Without Power
When leaders encounter hesitation, the instinct is often to push. To demand certainty. To draw a hard line around accountability.
"Just give me the number."
"You need to own it."
"No excuses."
It sounds strong. It sounds like leadership.
But it's not.
Because when you push someone to commit to an outcome they don't fully control, you're not building accountability. You're creating fear.
And fear doesn't drive ownership. It drives avoidance.
This is where trust begins to unravel. Not because of intent, but because of structure.
The Real Fix: Action-Based Accountability
So what do you do when you want commitment, but can’t guarantee the outcome?
You shift what you're holding people accountable for.
You don’t hold them to the result. You hold them to the quality of their action.
This is a principle I’ve come back to again and again in leadership roles, especially when leading outside my domain expertise. When I didn’t know the market. When I couldn’t second-guess the detail. I had to trust.
But I didn’t check out.
Instead, I made empowerment the system. Not a gift. Not a speech. A repeatable approach to how we committed, acted, and learned.
Here’s what that looks like in practice:
1. Hear the Concern
Start by creating safety. Let the team surface what’s holding them back.
Psychological safety, a concept developed by Harvard researcher Amy Edmondson, is the belief that you won’t be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns, or mistakes.
Without it, people hedge. They hide. They play safe. And you never get real commitment.
2. Challenge the Thinking
Once the concern is voiced, don’t jump straight to agreement or override. Apply pressure, not force.
Ask:
What specifically makes this deal feel uncertain?
What would change if we learned X?
Where do you have leverage, and where don’t you?
You’re helping them reason, not just react. That’s how confidence is built.
3. Decide Together
Now you shape the commitment. Together.
It’s not you assigning a number. It’s not them guessing to appease you.
It’s a shared call, based on challenge and clarity. That’s where ownership starts to form.
This aligns with the "Ownership Ladder" used in business coaching:
Blame → Excuse → Wait → Acknowledge → Act → Own
If you force commitment too early, you keep people stuck at "Wait." When you guide them through reasoning, they begin to move up.
4. Define the Action
Here’s the real shift:
Don’t hold them accountable for the win. Hold them accountable for what they’ll do to create the conditions for that win.
The conversations they’ll have
The signals they’ll track
The creative moves they’ll make when the first plan falters
That’s internal locus of control — the belief that your actions matter. And research shows that when people believe that, engagement goes up. Ownership goes up. Learning accelerates.
Why This Works
Let’s break it down:
Psychological Safety creates the environment for honest discussion
Cognitive Challenge (not command) sharpens thinking and builds confidence
Shared Commitment drives ownership because it’s co-created, not assigned
Action-Based Accountability aligns responsibility with influence
That’s how you get forecasts with teeth.
Not because the team guesses right.
Because they act with intent, and learn from what happens.
Trust as a System
Trust isn’t about belief. It’s about structure.
It’s about how you build the space for ownership - not just ask for it.
And in leadership, the win isn’t just hitting the number.
It’s building a team that commits with clarity, acts with urgency, and learns in motion.
That’s what systems do.
That’s what leadership builds.
Want a tool to put this into action?
I built a weekly planner that helps you track when you intervene, and why - so you can start building the trust that scales.
