Why Accountability Often Gets Overlooked in Schools — and How to Shift the Culture
Written by Lisa Kelliher, Chief Executive Officer, Be Challenged
Over the weekend, I engaged in a thought-provoking conversation with a friend who holds a leadership position in the education sector. We delved into the challenges that educators face when it comes to holding one another accountable. This discussion illuminated a significant concern: why do teachers and school leaders often struggle to prioritise accountability within their teams?
The Relational Nature of Educational Environments
In schools, relationships form the bedrock of daily interactions. Whether it’s between teachers and students, staff and families, or among colleagues themselves, education is inherently relational. Educators are drawn to this profession because they care deeply about people, growth, and connection. These values are central to the identity of most school teams.
This emphasis on connection and the prioritisation of that which is relational can also create hesitation or fear when performance concerns arise. In environments where trust and rapport are highly valued, calling out a missed deadline or naming a pattern of underperformance can feel confrontational, or even disloyal.
The risk is that performance issues may go unaddressed. Over time, this can quietly erode team effectiveness, morale, and even student outcomes.
When Relationships Make Accountability Feel Risky
What makes accountability particularly challenging in schools is the fear that raising concerns might damage important relationships. Leaders may avoid giving honest feedback because they worry it could upset the team culture. Colleagues might sidestep conversations because “everyone’s doing their best” — and of course, they usually are.
Doing our best at this point in time doesn't mean we can’t do better. That’s where accountability comes in. Without structures that encourage openness and clarify expectations, even high-performing teams can plateau. High performers become frustrated at the lack of accountability they perceive around them and the cycle of attrition continues.
Unlike the business world, where metrics, KPIs and review cycles are commonplace, the education sector often lacks formal accountability frameworks. Roles may seem well understood; however, they are rarely articulated in a way that supports clear, shared ownership. This ambiguity makes it hard to measure success and celebrate wins - and even harder to have the right conversations when things go off track.
Patrick Lencioni’s Model: The Five Behaviours of a Cohesive Team
So how do we build accountability in a way that feels authentic in schools?
Patrick Lencioni’s Five Behaviours of a Cohesive Team offers a helpful framework. Widely used in leadership and team development, this model identifies five interdependent behaviours that lead to strong, high-performing teams:
Trust – vulnerability-based trust, where team members feel safe to admit mistakes and ask for help
Conflict – productive, respectful conflict that surfaces real issues
Commitment – clarity and buy-in around team decisions
Accountability – holding one another to high standards, built on shared expectations
Results – focusing on collective outcomes rather than individual agendas
What’s key here is that accountability isn’t the starting point; it’s the result of the behaviours that come before it. Trust enables conflict. Conflict enables commitment. Commitment enables accountability.
In other words, we can’t just tell teams to hold each other accountable. We need to build the environment where that becomes possible.
Building Trust to Foster Accountability
When trust is present, team members are far more likely to engage in constructive conversations. They can give and receive feedback, raise concerns, and take ownership. Not because they’re told to, but because it feels safe and expected.
This is where structured team development plays a powerful role. Creating intentional spaces for reflection, discussion, and shared learning can shift teams from polite collaboration to courageous honesty. That’s the foundation accountability needs to grow.
At Be Challenged, our school-specialist facilitators work with leadership and staff teams to do exactly that. Through experiential programs designed around Lencioni’s Five Behaviours, we help schools build trust, improve communication, and align on shared goals. The activities are hands-on, engaging, and highly tailored. Real change doesn’t come from theory alone, but from doing the work together.
Implementing the Five Behaviours in Educational Settings
Introducing this model to schools doesn’t require an overhaul of culture or the adoption of corporate style language. Its strength lies in its simplicity and flexibility.
Workshops grounded in the Five Behaviours provide a common metalanguage to drive collective efficacy to the next level. When school staff engage in this work together, they begin to notice their well engrained patterns. They see where trust exists, where it breaks down, where expectations are clear, and where they’re assumed.
As teams move through these layers, accountability becomes less about blame and more about shared responsibility. That shift is powerful, and it’s especially impactful in education, where teamwork directly affects student experience and wellbeing.
The Path Forward
So where does that leave us?
If we want to build strong, cohesive teams in schools, we must honour the relational nature of the work while also introducing the structures that support accountability. These two elements are not in opposition with one another. In fact, when done well, they reinforce each other.
Trust doesn’t disappear when expectations are made clear. It grows.
Accountability doesn’t damage culture. It protects it.
Conversations about performance aren’t confrontations. They’re commitments.
By intentionally introducing frameworks like Lencioni’s and supporting school teams through experiential learning, we can help educators move beyond ambiguity and toward aligned, empowered, and results-driven collaboration.
Want to explore this for your team?
Be Challenged has helped hundreds of Australian school teams navigate this space. If you’re curious about how we can support your staff, leadership, or whole-school development, we’d love to connect.
Building stronger teams in schools doesn’t start with pressure. It starts with trust.
Drop by the Be Challenged stand at the National Education Summit or book a time to meet with one of us. We’d love to learn more about your team and share how we’re helping schools across Australia build trust, lift performance, and stay connected.