Blog | Sam Silverstein

Accountability Is Not Just For The Workplace

I spend a lot of time talking to teams and leaders about what accountability looks like on the organizational level – in the workplace. But it’s just as important to take a close look at accountability in our relationships with people outside of the workplace. In fact, I believe true accountability always starts at the level of the individual, not the level of the organization. Let me share an example of what accountability on the

February 5, 2019

Holocaust Remembrance Needs More Than A Day

This weekend, the world was reminded of the horrific campaign of industrialized genocide unleashed by the Nazi regime against Jews, gays, the disabled, and other persecuted minorities. Holocaust Remembrance Day was officially January 27. It is right and fitting that the world pause once a year and set aside this day for remembrance. Yet there was a news story I came across that convinced me that I had an obligation to write a post about

January 30, 2019

The One Big Takeaway From The Covington/Lincoln Memorial Social Media Meltdown

By now there’s a very good chance you’ve already heard something intense, partisan, and angry about the protests that happened near the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on Martin Luther King Day. But on the off chance you’ve somehow missed the commotion, here’s a brief rundown. Social media platforms went crazy over viral videos showing encounters between a Native American elder and a group of boys from Covington Catholic High School, who were in Washington

January 22, 2019

Accountability Is Impossible Without The Truth

For a leader, there is no such thing as “kind of” telling the truth. If you are a leader, you are either fulfilling your personal commitment to tell someone who is counting on you the truth, or you aren’t fulfilling that commitment. If you aren’t, then accountability within the relationship and the organization you lead is impossible, because you’ve already failed to be accountable to your team coming out of the gate. That’s the high

January 17, 2019

Uber: The Employees Speak

There is one thing about Uber that everyone agrees on. The global ride-sharing service that transformed the way people get around in major metropolitan areas has a remarkable capacity make news. The problem is, not all of the headlines it generates are good. For every positive news item — securing an astonishing 69% of the US market, say, or launching a new service providing wheelchair-accessible vehicles, or positioning itself for what looks to be one

January 11, 2019

A Question For The New Year

One of the questions I ask leaders — a question that sometimes makes them a little uncomfortable — is a fairly simple, direct one: Do you tell your people the truth? It’s a deeply relevant question, I think, as we approach the New Year. Forget, for a moment, whether you feel your people tell you the truth, or how you feel about it on those occasions when you can prove that they don’t. (That’s actually

January 2, 2019

Johnson & Johnson’s Four-Fold Failure Of Accountability

Word broke recently of what may be one of the most shameful corporate cover-ups in the history of American business. Reuters reported that pharmaceutical and consumer products giant Johnson & Johnson had known, as early as 1971, about the presence of asbestos, a known carcinogen, in its iconic baby powder product. This disclosure quickly prompted comparisons with similar, devastating, revelations in various consumer-products liability cases, such as those filed against the major tobacco companies. According

December 26, 2018

Accountability Is Impossible Without The Truth

December 12, 2018

Accountable Leadership Doesn’t Play Favorites

A leadership lesson from a two-year old. A while back, we had a birthday party for my two-year-old granddaughter Sophy. As it unfolded, I was privileged to observe a powerful object lesson for leaders. As the birthday girl, Sophy was sitting at the head of the table. She happened to notice that she had one of her grandmothers sitting immediately to her right. When Sophy noticed that, she smiled and reached out to hold her

November 28, 2018

I Am A Manager Who Holds People Accountable

“I AM A MANAGER WHO HOLDS PEOPLE ACCOUNTABLE” Are you? Do you really want to be? There are two major problems with the sentence that forms the title of this article. Can you spot them both? Look at it in two halves. Here’s the first half: “I am a manager …” Are you really a manager? Are you sure? We manage resources. We manage things: computers, real estate, product inventory. Contrary to popular belief, we

November 14, 2018

The Accountability Blog

Accountability Is Not Just For The Workplace

Holocaust Remembrance Needs More Than A Day

The One Big Takeaway From The Covington/Lincoln Memorial Social Media Meltdown

Accountability Is Impossible Without The Truth

Uber: The Employees Speak

A Question For The New Year

Johnson & Johnson’s Four-Fold Failure Of Accountability

Accountability Is Impossible Without The Truth

Accountable Leadership Doesn’t Play Favorites

I Am A Manager Who Holds People Accountable

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