Accountability conversations, even when leaders mean well, can often do more harm than good.
A manager might set clear goals, demand focus, and hold people to high standards. On the surface, it looks like disciplined leadership. But if that approach is heavy on correction and light on encouragement, the result is usually the opposite of what was intended.
Psychologist Marcial Losada studied the dynamics of high-performing business teams. His research revealed a striking pattern: teams that thrive maintain about six positive interactions for every one critical or corrective one. This 6:1 ratio isn’t about false praise. It shows how much positive reinforcement is needed to keep people engaged, open, and motivated when challenges arise.
When accountability is overused, leaders unintentionally drain energy and connection. Employees start to feel that nothing is good enough, which leads to defensiveness, lower trust, and weaker performance. Encouragement acts as the counterbalance. Without it, accountability becomes a blunt tool.
For leadership coaches, this is a pivotal insight. It highlights why so many leaders struggle when they rely only on toughness. It also points to a valuable opportunity: guiding leaders to balance accountability with encouragement so that both performance and connection grow stronger.
Why Accountability Alone Fails
Leaders often assume that discipline, clear priorities, and strict standards are enough to drive results. From their perspective, accountability is about being firm and consistent: setting the bar high, pointing out gaps, and making sure people meet expectations. It feels logical and fair. Yet this reliance on accountability as a single lever creates an invisible trap.
When accountability is the only focus, the conversation tilts toward what is missing or broken. Leaders find themselves repeatedly highlighting shortfalls, calling out errors, or tightening controls.
Over time, even well-intended feedback starts to sound like criticism. Instead of sharpening performance, this pattern quietly erodes it. Team members feel their efforts are overlooked and their contributions undervalued. Energy drops, trust weakens, and the relationship between leader and team becomes transactional rather than collaborative.
For coaches, the key insight is that the “accountability muscle” can become overdeveloped. Leaders who pride themselves on being tough often don’t notice how their approach lands. They may believe they are driving excellence, when in reality they are breeding compliance at best and disengagement at worst. Helping leaders see this unintended consequence is often the breakthrough moment in coaching.
| Consider the example of a senior leader who consistently delivers results. Quarterly numbers look strong, but turnover in their team is climbing. Exit interviews reveal the same theme: people felt under constant scrutiny but rarely encouraged. The leader hasn’t failed at accountability; they’ve overused it. Coaching can help restore balance by showing that accountability without encouragement eventually undermines both performance and people. |
Encouragement as a Performance Multiplier
Encouragement is sometimes dismissed as “soft leadership.” In reality, it’s a strategic discipline that strengthens results. Acknowledging progress, appreciating effort, and recognising achievements don’t dilute standards. They create the energy and trust needed to meet them.
The Green Zone Link
In the Leadership Growth Profile research, Green Zone behaviours account for a large share of what shapes key outcomes.
The Green Zone refers to intentional, values-aligned behaviours that support trust, clarity, and shared ownership. These are the habits teams rely on when navigating pressure, complexity, or change.
Out of everything that influences results, these behaviours explain a meaningful portion of the variance in: performance, leadership effectiveness, engagement, psychological safety, and mental health. In the data, these behaviours show up as central ingredients in how teams perform and feel.
Green Zone behaviours to emphasise:
- Shows empathy toward others when needed
- Actively listens to diverse points of view
- Treats others with care and respect
- Praises and appreciates people for good work
- Celebrates the success and achievements of others
- Expresses confidence in people’s ability
Balancing Tough and Nice
The most effective leaders balance toughness with encouragement. They hold people to account for clear standards while also reinforcing what’s working.
This balance builds resilience. Teams are more willing to stretch into challenges when they know their leader values effort as well as outcomes. We’ll explore more about this in the next section.
The Coaching Opportunity
For coaches, the task is to help leaders reframe encouragement as part of discipline, not its opposite.
When leaders consistently practice Green Zone behaviours, accountability shifts from pressure to partnership. It becomes a process that drives motivation rather than draining it.
The Tough vs. Nice Paradox in Coaching
Great leaders are both tough and nice. They set clear expectations and hold people accountable, while also encouraging, recognising, and supporting their teams. This paradox often feels confusing to leaders who believe they must choose between driving performance and being approachable.
Coaching offers a way to reframe this. Instead of treating toughness and niceness as opposites, coaches can help leaders see them as points along a spectrum. Both are necessary, and the most effective leaders learn to flex between them depending on what the moment requires.
For example, a coach working with a senior manager might highlight how he holds high standards for delivery, but rarely pauses to celebrate progress. By practicing simple shifts, like naming wins in team meetings, he strengthens his “nice” side without lowering the bar for results. The combination creates a healthier, more resilient team dynamic.
Coaches can use practical prompts to help leaders find this balance:
“What’s one way you can pair appreciation with accountability in your next one-on-one?”
“Where might your focus on performance be crowding out encouragement?”
This paradox, when reframed and practiced, becomes a core growth edge. It transforms accountability from a heavy hand into a balanced force for both achievement and connection.
Coaching Tools for Balancing Accountability and Encouragement
Helping leaders balance toughness and encouragement requires more than insight. It calls for deliberate practices that translate awareness into everyday action. Coaches can equip leaders with practical tools that make the balance both measurable and repeatable.
Four Coaching Practices to Introduce
- Feedback ratios: Encourage leaders to use the 6:1 benchmark as a guide, aiming for six positive or reinforcing interactions for every one corrective comment. This creates a rhythm that sustains motivation.
- Mapping tendencies: Use an assessment like the Leadership Growth Profile to highlight a leader’s Green Zone strengths and Red Zone risks. Visualising this balance helps leaders see both the progress and the pressure points that shape team experience.
- One Big Practice (OBP): Support leaders to choose a single behaviour to experiment with, such as linking praise directly to standards (“I appreciate how you handled that client issue and kept to our process”). This focus keeps growth manageable and visible.
- Self-regulation cues: Teach leaders to pause before reacting. Even a breath or short silence creates space to shift from “fast brain” reactivity into Green Zone responses that integrate accountability with encouragement.
| Coaching Case Study One executive entered coaching believing her directness was her biggest strength. When she mapped her Leadership Growth Profile, the picture was more complex: her Green Zone “Drive Accountability” scores were high, but “Engage the Heart” lagged well behind. Her Red Zone showed a strong tendency toward being critical under stress. Seeing these patterns side by side reframed the issue; she wasn’t “bad at encouragement,” she was simply leaning too heavily on accountability. With her coach, she chose an OBP: in every performance review, name one strength before addressing gaps. Within months, her team described her as just as demanding, but far more supportive. Instead of only noting errors in weekly reviews, she also highlighted where individuals had applied best practices. Over time, her team reported feeling both stretched and supported. Performance stayed high, but engagement began to rise as well. |
Reflection Questions for Clients
Coaches can end sessions with reflective prompts that keep leaders practicing balance:
- “In the past week, how many times did you balance correction with encouragement?”
- “What one behaviour could you practice tomorrow to strengthen both accountability and connection?”
- “How will your team know you value their effort as much as their results?”
When these practices take hold, accountability stops being a source of strain and becomes a shared engine of achievement and engagement.
The Coach’s Edge: Evidence-Based Practice
Coaches who can help leaders balance accountability with encouragement bring measurable value to organisations. This isn’t just about intuition or good conversation. It’s about showing leaders, with evidence, how their patterns shape both performance and culture — and giving them a structured path to change.
The Leadership Growth Profile offers that path. As a 360° assessment, it maps both Green Zone strengths and Red Zone risks, making visible the behaviours that drive performance, learning, and workplace health.
Instead of broad feedback like “be more supportive,” coaches can point to concrete patterns such as high accountability paired with low encouragement, or critical tendencies that overshadow recognition. This clarity transforms coaching from abstract guidance into practical, evidence-based growth.
For coaches, the edge lies in being able to surface these insights and guide leaders toward deliberate practice. When a leader sees their tendencies on paper, they’re more open to experimenting with new behaviours. Over time, the balance between accountability and encouragement becomes observable not only to the coach, but to the team experiencing the change.
For those who want to go deeper, the Triple Goal’s ICF-accredited Leadership Growth Profile Coaching Certification provides 22 hours of Continuing Coach Education (CCE) and equips coaches with the full system behind the assessment.
Where Performance Meets Encouragement
Accountability without encouragement drains energy and weakens performance. Encouragement without accountability drifts into complacency. Great leaders learn to hold both. And great coaches help them get there.
By guiding leaders to pair standards with recognition, correction with care, coaches transform accountability from a blunt instrument into a balanced practice that fuels results and strengthens connection.
For coaches, the essential question is: How am I equipping my clients to drive results and engage hearts? The answer often lies in moving beyond generic advice to evidence-based practice. Tools like the Leadership Growth Profile make the invisible visible, surfacing where accountability dominates and where encouragement needs to grow.
If you’re ready to integrate this balance in your coaching practice, visit triplegoal.com/coach-certification/ to learn about our ICF-accredited coaching program.
