The Accountability Dilemma of Global Outages
When major outages such as those from CrowdStrike or Amazon Web Services occur, companies often respond by assigning blame instead of taking ownership. These moments reveal how interconnected systems can create dependency, leading people to focus on what lies outside their control rather than what actions they can take next.
Culture Partners’ Steps to Accountability (See It, Own It, Solve It, Do It) provides a path for shifting from blame to action. Leaders who practice accountability acknowledge what happened, take responsibility, find solutions, and follow through. This mindset connects to the message in Surrender to Lead: surrendering to reality is not weakness but the beginning of leadership.
As automation and AI take over more human tasks, accountability becomes even more critical. True leadership requires staying responsible even when control is shared with technology. Outages and failures are inevitable, but how organizations respond reveals their culture. Those that stay Above The Line® focus on results and responsibility, while those Below The Line® stay stuck in blame.
Next week’s newsletter will look at real-world AI failures and how leaders can keep accountability alive when technology makes mistakes.
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Surrender to Leadis the book Joe Terry and I wrote to redefine what leadership really looks like. We have both seen how often leaders think strength means control, but it doesn’t. Real leadership starts when you let go. When you surrender your ego, your need to have all the answers, and your attachment to certainty, you create space for trust, accountability, and real results.
Preorders are now live. When you preorder, you’ll also receive three hundred dollars worth of exclusive leadership resources to help you apply these ideas in your own organization. Visit surrendertotead.comto preorder your copy today.