Bill Kinnon over at achievable ends wrote a post call The “A” Word focusing on accountability. I found his site because he quoted/paraphrased something from Ed at a C3 conference talking about accountability.

This really made me start again to think about accountability. Just as I stated in my comment his post, accountability is very important as a leader. You must have it in place and you must take it seriously. However, lets not fool ourselves either. You and I both know that we are only as accountable as we really want to be. How many people do you know that had accountability in their lives and were not living it out. They lie, or we do. Look at Bill Clinton, he had Bill Hybles as an accountability partner while he was in the White House with Monica. Humm. So, just because you say your are accountable or even have accountability in your life does not mean that you or I are living it out.

Bottom line is we are only going to be accountable if we want to be. I agree, strong leaders surround themselves with strong people who are unafraid to confront the leader with truth. However, I don't think the people sitting in the chairs once a month on a weekend listening to a sermon are not the “strong people” that should be holding us as leaders accountable. Lets not forget, we first and foremost must hold ourselves accountable!