Accountability Without Support Isn’t Leadership

A lot of leaders in healthcare love to talk about accountability. And yes—it’s important. Standards matter. Results matter. In healthcare, they matter more than almost anywhere else.

But here’s the problem: too many leaders push accountability without building the support structure underneath it.

You can’t hold people to a high bar and leave them standing alone. You can’t demand top performance while cutting corners on training, resources, staffing, or communication.

Real accountability—the kind that builds great teams—is paired with real support.

When I work with healthcare teams, I always ask leaders two questions before we ever get into performance issues:

→ Have you made it crystal clear what success looks like?

→ Have you given your team the tools and environment they need to reach it?

Because if the answer to either one is “no,” then accountability isn’t fair—it’s theater.

When people feel set up to win, they step up.

When people feel set up to fail, they pull back.

And it doesn’t take long for resentment to take root. Good people leave. New hires flounder. Culture quietly deteriorates, even while leaders insist “we’re just raising standards.”

Healthcare is a high-stress, high-stakes environment. Nobody signs up for this work thinking it’s going to be easy. But there’s a difference between hard and impossible. Good leadership knows the line.

If you’re seeing burnout, turnover, or disengagement, it’s not just a people problem. It’s a leadership structure problem.

Accountability without support doesn’t build strong teams. It builds revolving doors.

If you’re ready to build a culture that demands excellence and makes it possible to reach it, let’s talk.

Head over to www.jandmsolves.com, click “Home,” then hit “Yes, I want that” to fill out our contact form. We’d love to hear where your team is and where you want it to go.