Principle #12 – Real skin-in-the-game creates true accountability.
Ever notice how people take way better care of rental cars when the deposit is $500? That’s skin in the game—when the outcomes of a decision hit you directly.
Why It Works
Accountability isn’t about job titles or performance reviews. It’s about feeling the impact of your own choices:
- Win? You share the rewards.
- Fail? You feel the pain.
When people are insulated from consequences, they make careless decisions. (See: executives who tank companies and leave with golden parachutes.) But give someone real skin in the game, and suddenly precision matters.
The Leadership Lesson
If you want true accountability:
- Give people clear authority over their work.
- Link outcomes to actual consequences (good and bad).
- Stop rewarding heroics that fix avoidable problems.
Because accountability isn’t about punishment—it’s about designing roles so people own their results instead of pointing fingers when things go sideways.
The Provocation
What if your next big decision affected you as much as everyone else? Would you make it differently? That’s skin in the game—and it changes everything.
Your Move
Pick one decision path where people are shielded from outcomes. Close that gap. When the stakes are real, so is the accountability.