The score that almost never moved

Hi Nik,

Every Friday I share one thing I've noticed in the field of commercial leadership. This week it's a number that stopped me: across a set of structured assessments I've run this year, only one leader in 21 scored highly on accountability.

This week in the field

It wasn't about experience. It wasn't about team size. Even the leaders who'd built the most-loved team cultures scored no better on this than anyone else in the group.

What it means in practice

If you've built a team people genuinely enjoy working on, that's real, and it's not nothing. But it's worth checking separately whether that same team holds itself to a standard when nobody's watching, because on this evidence, the two don't seem to move together on their own.

Twelve leaders in the group scored 7 or above on team culture. Only one scored that highly on accountability. From a set of leadership assessments run by B2B Culture Coach, 2026.

The question to sit with

If a stranger watched your team handle a missed deadline, would they see a standard being held, or a good relationship being protected?

Curious where you'd score on this? Take the free CODE Leadership Scorecard, five minutes, free.