“Culture is the product of people and their values.”
TOM BRADY
A message from Coach Vidal
Based on my experience in collegiate sports, I get asked to speak to a variety of groups who want to know what it takes to excel at a high level, and how to sustain winning year after year. They want to hear the lessons I learned on my journey and see if there are any practices they can apply to their own organizations.
Many of the conversations we have come back to themes like leadership, confidence, and accountability; since those are three key areas that I believe help explain my championship coaching success.
In this article, I want to talk specifically about accountability, what I’ve learned over the years about how to build accountability, and why it’s so important.
DEFINING ACCOUNTABILITY
Accountability requires taking 100% personal responsibility for your results.
Nothing less will do.
In competitive tennis, only the complainers and losers refuse to look at their own technique—where fundamental change occurs. It’s easier to blame the conditions, your opponent, or a bad line call.
Champions in sports, from Serena Williams to Tom Brady, earned their legacies by taking complete ownership of their outcomes. They doubled down on the basics, made vital tweaks, and used adversity as motivation to transcend the competition.
LEADERSHIP BEGINS AT THE HEAD
Accountability, like any core value or leadership trait, starts at the top.
As the leader of our Huskie men’s tennis program, I focus on embodying accountability by committing to three non-negotiable standards:
(1) Pursue excellence.
A lot of leaders want to tell people how to do their job without providing the example. Demanding excellence from others when you don’t live and breathe the highest of expectations does not work. The players are too smart for that.
(2) Be totally prepared.
It’s my responsibility to see things others don’t see and plan for contingencies. Otherwise, why am I here? As a leader, you can’t treat practice like practice or just another day at the office. Every moment is an opportunity to advance and conquer.
(3) Acknowledge mistakes.
Leaders who never believe they are wrong are not leaders at all—they’re simply egomaniacs. Just like in tennis where the nets and the lines are there for a reason, leaders will miss their fair share of shots. We must be open to lifelong learning.
EXPANDING ACCOUNTABILITY
I believe that the whole notion of accountability is widely misunderstood and limited in scope. Many leaders and top performers mistakenly view accountability through a singular lens—as being responsible to yourself alone.
Accountability is multi-faceted, reaching beyond self-responsibility to:
- Your commitment to the team.
- Your commitment to the organization.
- Your commitment to excellence.
Once we become a part of a cause that is larger than ourselves, we must take ownership of all that process entails. The ultimate characteristic of a winning culture is where peer-to-peer accountability, coaching, and growth co-exist.
True champions make everyone else better. Accountability is a team sport.
BUILDING A CULTURE OF ACCOUNTABILITY
Accountability is one of the best and most needed values in high-performing teams and organizations. Refer to our working definition of accountability and imagine what your environment may look and feel like with a group of people who do not embrace personal responsibility.
Your day-to-day operations and communication circuits would be mired in:
- Self-interest
- Greed
- Finger-pointing
- Cliques, rivalries, and
- Hidden agendas.
Jack Welch, former CEO at General Electric, once said: “Before you become a leader, success is all about growing yourself. Once you become a leader, success is all about growing others.”
I believe the same principle holds true for accountability. As a leader, before you can build a culture of accountability, you must act like an owner. Once you become the avatar for accountability, you have the capacity to empower a team of owners who inspire each other to greatness and perform at the highest level.
René Vidal