What Healthcare Leaders Need to Practice (Not Just Preach)
The Cadence of Accountability
By Jan Sweat, VP of Learning Solutions at CHAP
If you’re a leader in home-based care, you’ve probably had this moment: a task falls through the cracks, a team member drops the ball, and suddenly everyone is scrambling. You follow up, only to realize no one remembers when the deadline was, or who owned it in the first place.
It’s not that your team is careless. It’s that your accountability system is missing a beat.
We talk a lot about accountability as a value. But values don’t move the needle; habits do. Without a steady rhythm of follow-up, documentation, transparency, and trust, even the best teams get stuck in reactive mode. And when that happens, quality suffers.
You Can’t Fix What You Don’t Name
In most cases, accountability issues don’t show up as one big failure. They leak out slowly through missed deadlines, unanswered messages, low engagement, and quiet frustration. Sometimes, it looks like finger-pointing, and sometimes, it seems like burnout.
And it’s not always about undefined roles. Sometimes, it’s about avoiding the parts of our roles that make us uncomfortable, like difficult conversations, follow-through, and saying no.
Leadership Isn’t an Easy Button
For years, I thought being a strong leader meant always having the answers. I quickly solved problems, gave directions, and checked things off. But I wasn’t building problem-solvers. I was building dependence.
Authentic leadership isn’t about having the answers. It’s about creating space for your team to find them.
That shift, away from micromanagement and toward empowerment, is one of the most powerful changes leaders can make. And it’s not just theoretical. It’s tactical. It looks like:
- One-on-ones that don’t get skipped
- Shared lists with documented priorities
- Questions like “Where are we with this?” instead of “Why isn’t this done?”
When these habits are in place, your team starts owning their role and results.
Want to put these ideas into action? Join us at CHAP’s next Healthcare Leadership Workshop. It’s a two-day immersive program, followed by a six-month virtual journey, built for leaders who want to lead with strategy, not just survival. You’ll learn to coach your team, manage accountability without micromanagement, and shift from reactive to proactive leadership.
88% of attendees say the most valuable part was seeing how peers across the country lead differently and realizing there’s more than one right way.
Accountability Needs a Cadence
You don’t need another productivity tool. You need cadence. A rhythm your team can rely on. That might include:
- Weekly 1:1s and biweekly team huddles
- A shared, accessible list of annual and quarterly goals
- Deadlines that are visible and realistic
- A culture of follow-through, not follow-up fatigue
Consistency doesn’t mean rigidity. It means your team knows what to expect and when. That predictability reduces noise, builds trust, and improves performance.
Metrics Should Serve the Patient, Not the Other Way Around
Too often, accountability is reduced to checking boxes. But if your team is only focused on hitting metrics, they’ll miss what matters. Instead, we teach leaders to ask, “How does this metric reflect what our patients need?”
When you prioritize the patient over the KPI, positive outcomes will follow. Your team will feel they are doing meaningful work rather than just meeting a quota.
The Workshop Difference
There’s something powerful about stepping outside your day-to-day and seeing how other leaders approach the same challenges. That’s why our in-person workshop is different.
We don’t just teach strategies; we model them, build in real-time performance support planning, and give leaders a chance to see what’s working in other parts of the country because sometimes the most significant growth comes from seeing things done differently.
So, if you’re ready to stop the firefighting and start leading, join us.
You’ll leave with practical tools, renewed clarity, and a leadership rhythm your team can trust.
Because accountability isn’t just a value, it’s a practice. And it’s one your team is waiting for you to set.
