Who’s Landing the Plane?

In this week’s Good Leadership Podcast, Kevin Sensenig and I discuss the origin story of the Healthy Accountability Research Project—only one pilot lands the plane. You can listen to that episode here.

Through recent research, a new definition of healthy accountability emerged:

• When people win together, in an environment where individuals take personal ownership, and embrace the support of the team to deliver quality work on time.

This definition has created a fresh conversation about accountability. In leadership, many things need to be shared: vision, values, commitments… but accountability cannot be shared. The story of a CEO who lost a game-changing opportunity serves as a powerful lesson in how accountability—or the lack of it—determines success.

A Missed Opportunity

A billion-dollar consumer services company had a long-standing supplier contract that included a copycat clause: if a product failed, the company had a brief window to create its own version, branding and pricing it as they saw fit. When the top-selling product failed, the CEO put a team on the challenge. They were motivated, energized, and optimistic.

Then, things fell apart. A few weeks in, no one had clear updates, and the project was far from completion. The CEO took over, mandated daily check-ins, and drove the project forward. With confidence, he booked a flight to Munich to share the anticipated success with the private equity firm that owned the company. But just before takeoff, a text arrived: the team had missed the deadline. The opportunity was lost.

A Leadership Realization

At first, frustration got the best of him. He slid into an exhausting blame game. But then, in a moment of calm somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean, he found clarity. The CEO realized the failure was systemic. Their company’s track record of succeeding on special projects was not good. In this situation, it wasn’t clear who was accountable for finishing the project. He daydreamed about the airplane transporting him to Munich. He thought “there’s only one person, one pilot, who knows she or he needs to land the plane. The pilot seeks the teamwork and expertise of people on the ground, and in the air to build a flight plan. The airplane’s clarity, structure, and teamwork were missing in his own company.

The Shift to Clear Accountability

This realization led to a fundamental shift: healthy accountability must be clear and proactive. Leaders have to set a good example of healthy accountability, and teammates need to help one another deliver quality work on time. Listen to the full podcast to learn more about how the airline pilot example can accelerate your journey to a culture of healthy accountability.