How to Become Ridiculously Well Liked at Work

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This is the hill I will die on.

If you hang around me long enough, you'll hear this a lot: accountability. This is the rarest trait in the workforce, and most people, including very smart people, don't really understand what it means.

By definition, accountability is the willingness to accept responsibility for outcomes. Not effort, not intentions, but outcomes.

And here is why it's so rare. Gallup just released its 2026 State of the Global Workplace Report, and only 20% of employees worldwide are engaged at work. That means roughly 8 out of 10 people are checked out to some degree, at an estimated cost of $10 trillion a year in lost productivity.

The truth is that most people don't like their job. Most, not all. That shows up at work exactly how you would expect: low productivity, performance issues, and doing the bare minimum to get by. For most of the corporate world, "meets expectations" is the ceiling.

Even in elite organizations with top talent, I would argue about 80% of people are generally “doing their work” but not at peak performance. They're good enough, but not great.

They're coasting at a higher altitude, but still coasting.

Now imagine the alternative 

Can you imagine if we all actually cared about our work? Not performatively, but genuinely.

Productivity doesn't add up in a straight line. When one person on a team fully shows up, everyone around them levels up. Decisions get made faster, problems get caught earlier, and work stops getting redone.

One truly accountable person can lift the output of ten.

Now, multiply that across companies, industries, and economies. If everyone operating at "meets expectations" moved to genuinely engaged, we wouldn't see a 10% improvement. We would see a step change.

That $10 trillion Gallup counts as lost isn't just money. It's medicines not developed, diseases not cured, companies not built, and important problems in the world not solved.

Look, I'm all for the idea that we're here to live our best lives and frolic in the sun. I fully agree with that. I have a full thriving (a little chaotic) family life outside of work.

But, we're also here to make things better and contribute to the betterment of our civilization. And that can happen at a rapid rate if all of us, especially those of us in the developed world who have the geographical luck and opportunity to do meaningful work, took that seriously instead of taking it for granted.

We have luck and opportunity that millions of peole do not and never will. If you have the talent and opportunities to contribute towards creating a better world, use it.

So what does true accountability look like?

I came across a post from Alex Lieberman, Co-Founder of Morning Brew, on what it means to build "high-agency" employees—people who take ownership, solve problems, and have an unwavering commitment to accountability.

This is the best explanation I have seen.

Where I stand on this

I am extremely sensitive to low accountability. As in fully allergic to it and when I see this trait in someone, I cannot unsee it.

When you think of accountability on a scale of 1 to 5, level 1 employees find problems, bring them up to complain, wait to be told what to do, and do the minimum. By contrast level 5 employees own the outcome from start to finish with no chasing required.

If you're on my team, you need to be operating at a 4 or 5, because anything less simply doesn't meet my expectations.

That was the case when I was leading my corporate teams. I managed performance religiously, because nobody on my team should have to pull someone else's weight. And, as you guessed, I was not liked for it by most (not the top performers).

That's the sad part in all of this. Demanding accountability as a leader won't always make you popular, but delivering great results as a team always will.

This allergy to low-agency employees is much more pronounced now as a founder.

I'm a solo, bootstrapped founder. Every dollar we spend matters because, if the business can't cover it, it comes directly from my personal or family bank account.

That changes how you think about hiring and firing.

Paying a salary to someone who consistently fails to deliver, avoids ownership, or operates with low accountability simply isn't financially sustainable. Not for me. Not for most founders I know. And, certainly not for any business that's fighting to grow, become profitable, and survive.

Startups don't have the luxury of carrying passengers. They require high-agency people who take ownership, solve problems, and move the business forward without complaining about what doesn’t exist yet or waiting to be told what to do.

So, here is how you can become ridiculously well liked at work by becoming “high-agency”and someone your leader can truly count on:

1. You close loops without being chased. Nothing sits in limbo, and nobody has to chase you or remind you. Every open loop is a small withdrawal from your credibility, because the person waiting on you now has to carry your task in their head alongside their own. When you say it's done, it's done, and over time people learn they can hand you something and mentally let it go. That is key.

2. You give bad news early. If the deadline is slipping, say it on Tuesday, not Friday at 4pm when it’s overdue. Leaders don't lose trust when things go wrong. They lose trust when they find out late, because late bad news takes away their options. Early bad news gives them time to adjust, reallocate, and manage up to their bosses. Bring the bad news with a plan attached about what will be done now. You will be seen as a unicorn.

3. You own the outcome, not the effort. "I sent the email" is effort. "I got the answer to our question" is outcome. Accountable people don't stop at trying, and they don't hide behind process. Ew, gross.  

If the email didn't get answered, then pick up the phone. If the phone didn't work, then walk over to their desk. You get my point? The task isn't done because you touched it. It's done when the result exists.

4. You say the hard thing out loud. Not in the hallway after the meeting, and not in a side chat with the people who already agree with you. Disagree where it counts, while the decision can still change, then commit fully to whatever gets decided, even if it wasn't your call. That combination of honest in the room and loyal after is rare, and it makes you magnetic to senior leaders (and founders). As in ridiculously likeable.

5. Your miss should never surprise your boss. Your poor planning is not my emergency. I wish I could print that out and frame it.

Only people leaders know how many times that actually happens when you're managing a team. If something you own goes sideways, your boss should hear it from you first, framed with context as to why,  and a path forward. The moment your problem lands on their desk without context from you, you've turned a fixable issue into a trust issue.

Get ahead of it, every single time.

Try this

Pick one thing next week and actually do it at a level 5:

• Go through your inbox and close one open loop fully. Go on, I'm sure there are plenty. I close loops every Friday like my life depends on it. As the only full-time employee at Executiv, I wear 8 hats on a given day. It's so tough to keep on top of everything as we scale but my business is built on my reputation. Even a one-line "can't get to this until next week" counts.

• The next time something slips, flag it the same day with a plan. Flag it early, ideally days in advance.

• Take one stalled task and chase it to an outcome instead of another soggy attempt at “trying to do it”.

Do this consistently for a month and watch what changes.

Bigger, high visibility projects start landing on your desk, people start asking for you by your name (yes, even the ones who never speak to you), and eventually you get described with the two best words in any career: she delivers.

That's the hill I'm staying on.

Thank you for being here. I appreciate you. See you next week.

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