Setting Your Leadership Team Up for Strength With Self-Accountability

By Allison Maslan, Forbes Councils Member.

Published April 21, 2025 | Forbes.com

Empowering the leadership teams within your organization is a critical strategy that has reshaped how I run my business and other CEOs we have mentored. Ideally, when your company encounters a major operational setback, your leadership team shouldn’t wait for instructions. They should take the necessary time (or moment, if urgent) to step back and assess the situation. Then, with decisive action, make the right strategic move that will resolve the current issue and its impact on the future.

A truly empowered team isn’t a byproduct of delegation. It’s a cultivated mindset that drives tangible change.

The Crucial Role Of Leadership Teams

Our leadership teams are the frontline decision makers who manage daily challenges and unexpected crises on the ground. At my company, we consistently witness these challenges turning into transformations firsthand when working with our CEO clients. For instance, one of the law firms we mentor was struggling with siloed departments and a bottleneck of decisions that all flowed through the CEO. Despite having talented individuals, the firm was hamstrung by a lack of unified vision and empowered leadership.

After helping their leadership team align with the company’s growth vision, the transformation I saw was remarkable. When a major client crisis emerged—a regulatory change that affected dozens of their cases simultaneously—her newly empowered leadership team didn’t escalate to her, as they would have previously. Instead, they convened cross-functional leaders, developed a comprehensive response strategy and executed it flawlessly before she even needed to get involved. This wasn’t just about solving a short-term problem. It represented a fundamental shift in how leadership functioned within the organization.

What gets me excited is seeing this new kind of leadership bloom across the teams we mentor. It’s like everyone’s raising their hand and saying, “I got this.” That self-accountability is gold, and that’s the secret for any business. It’s about getting to a place where everyone, no matter their job title, feels like they own their piece of the pie. They’re not waiting for directions from the founder or CEO—they’re stepping up because they feel empowered to actually lead in their own space. And when you give people that runway, their confidence grows. They start seeing their value, and when they feel valued in their environment, they’re going to want to stay. 

Opportunity Through Empowerment

One of the biggest changes leaders can implement at companies to achieve this mindset is moving away from rigid hierarchies to places where every leader truly owns their area. And that means giving them real authority—the power to make decisions that matter, not just in their own team but across the company.

I’ve seen how this flips the script. Those little operational bumps in the road actually become chances for everyone to learn and get better. I value a proactive approach where people take ownership, and when you learn to apply this in your business, it can keep your company agile and win in this market.

Fostering A Culture Of Accountability And Confidence

Empowering your leadership team begins with articulating your strategic vision and ensuring each leader understands not just their departmental goals but how those objectives connect to the company’s overarching mission. Create a structured framework that explicitly outlines which decisions leaders can make autonomously versus which require collaboration or CEO input. I’ve found this single tool dramatically reduces bottlenecks and builds confidence. For example, one of our client CEOs color-coded decisions—green (make the call independently), yellow (consult with peers) and red (involve the CEO).

The transformation continues by establishing regular “strategic thinking sessions” where leaders work through complex challenges together rather than in silos. These cross-functional collaborations should follow a structured format: first defining the true problem (not just symptoms), then exploring multiple solutions before selecting an approach. Leaders should be encouraged to share both successes and failures openly during these sessions. One manufacturing CEO my team mentored implemented quarterly “failure celebrations” where his leadership team shared lessons from their biggest mistakes. This counterintuitive approach rapidly accelerated their collective problem-solving capabilities and innovation. The key is creating psychological safety where calculated risks are rewarded rather than punished, even when they don’t succeed.

Finally, shift from traditional top-down performance reviews to a horizontal approach. Meaning, you are collaborating with your team to literally grow the company together. This will create a continuous feedback model focused on growth rather than judgment. Implement a “leadership dashboard” where each leader tracks their key strategic metric and shares progress regularly with peers. This transparency creates natural accountability without micromanagement.

During 1:1 sessions with your leaders, use powerful questions rather than directives: “What obstacles are you facing?” “What resources would help you move faster?” “How would you approach this if you were in my position?” These questions signal trust while expanding their strategic thinking. Remember that truly empowered leadership teams aren’t built overnight—they develop through consistent reinforcement of these principles over 6-12 months. The ultimate test comes when you take your first extended absence from the business and return to find it not just functioning but thriving without your daily involvement. That’s when you’ll know you’ve created a team-managed company that enables true scale.

Building An A-List Team

When you join the Super Bowl, you want to create an A-list team. This is the same when you’re intentional about building a leadership team capable of driving winning performance. You have the confidence to give them space to run, to innovate, to make calls without constantly looking over their shoulders. In return, they naturally start lifting up their own teams. This creates a self-sustaining loop of accountability and continuous improvement that operates throughout your structure. Ultimately, this move toward distributed leadership means an organization is ready to grab whatever the future throws.

Rethinking Your Leadership

Reimagining leadership within your organization is an ongoing project. The ability to empower your leadership teams directly influences how agile, resilient and innovative your company can be. When leaders have the freedom and the support to take charge, they elevate not just their own performance but that of the entire organization.

Reflect on your current leadership structure. Are your teams genuinely empowered to make impactful decisions? A robust business is built on the collective power of every leader, at every level, ready to weather the current storms and aggressively pursue future wins.

Allison Maslan, CEO & Founder of Pinnacle Global Network, Wall Street Journal best-selling author.

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