Accountability in the workplace is perhaps one of the keys where a team’s success hinges upon. As a leader, you are not only responsible for holding yourself accountable; you are also responsible for building a culture of accountability on your team. At the end of the day, the best leaders are those who inject responsibility into the DNA of their team.
Sadly, the meaning of accountability is often charged with negative connotations. As a result, it damages the true meaning of the word, leading to even more stress and fear. Perhaps the reason behind this is that we often think of being accountable as accepting consequences or “disciplinary measures.” So if you want to foster accountability in the workplace, you have to know and understand what it truly means — negative connotations aside.
The True Meaning of Accountability
To learn the true meaning of accountability, you must first establish what it is not: accountability is not fear. It is not a slap on the wrist. Most of all, accountability is not just something that happens once the project is over.
In Peter Bregman’s article on accountability, he perfectly summed up what accountability truly means. He said, “Accountability is not simply taking the blame when something goes wrong. It’s not a confession. Accountability is about delivering on a commitment. It’s the responsibility to an outcome, not just a set of tasks. It’s taking initiative with thoughtful, strategic follow-through.”
Accountability is all about ownership and initiative. It means that when you take responsibility for a task, you need to follow through and accomplish it. You recognize that the other members are reliant on your work, so they can do their work as well.
By consistently demonstrating accountability in the workplace, the trust will grow stronger and success will come sooner. You trust your team members to do the right thing and they trust you to lead them in the right direction. This healthy amount of trust will pave the way for your team’s success.
7 Ways to Foster Accountability in the Workplace
I’m pretty sure you’ve been part of a team that was routinely troubled by late team members, broken promises, and missed deadlines. One of the biggest culprits for that is the failure of the team to prioritize accountability in its strategy.
Furthermore, workplace accountability begins with trust and support. Having these two means that your team is motivated to do the right thing and that they take responsibility when they do not. Rather than stressing over the outcomes you failed to achieve, you can foster accountability in the workplace by following these seven steps.
1. Promoting accountability in the workplace starts with yourself.
According to Henry Evans, the author of Winning with Accountability, accountability begins with working on ourselves first. Before you have “the talk” with your team, make sure that you are setting a good example for them.
To do that, he recommends that you take note of the two important commitments to our success: one for your work and the other for your personal life.
When leading accountability in the workplace, you must first recognize the fact that you must encourage others to hold you accountable. After all, building a culture of accountability is more effective when you are willing to be held accountable by others.
This concept is known as the “internal locus of control” in psychology. It is the belief that things that happen to you are influenced by your own actions, abilities, and even mistakes.
Here are other things you can do to lead by example:
- Complete the tasks that have been assigned to you on time.
- Show responsibility for your team’s success and make sure that you recognize their effort.
- Respect everyone’s time by coming on time and prepared for meetings.
Read: Follow These 6 Steps When Laying Off an Employee
2. Establish clear expectations from the get-go.
Lack of accountability arises from the failure to define what you meant by success to your team members. Every time you hold someone accountable for their actions, you need to be sure that you have been clear about your desired outcomes, your success metrics, and your team’s strategy from the very start. Bear in mind that clarity is at the core of accountability.
Discuss these expectations through meetings and mutual agreement between you and your employee. Of course, let them talk about their expectations as well. Don’t make the “accountability talk” exclusively defined by you and you alone.
When you are working on a project, be sure that you go over in detail the expectations you have and how it plays a huge role in your organization’s goals. Part of this process is providing an outcome that is both measurable and attainable. This is to make sure that you fill in the gaps that are caused by a lack of specificity and unclear expectations.
To be as specific as possible, you can try the following:
- Define specific timeframes.
- Define each member’s responsibilities.
- Describe how you want the outcome to look like.
- Provide examples.
Read: 26 Characteristics of a Great Leader That Will Define Your Victory
3. If you want to establish accountability in the workplace, you need to foster connection too.
There are different types of connections that can make employees feel connected to the work they are doing. Establishing these will help them become more accountable for their actions and performance.
- Connect their tasks to their personal and career goals.
- Connect them to the problem and let them come up with their own solutions. This will help them feel more responsible for their outcome.
- Connect their task to the organizational goals.
- Connect them with their colleagues by promoting collaboration and teamwork.
4. Have the “difficult talk.”
Holding people accountable may sound so confrontational, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Remember not to take it personally; focus on the performance and not the person himself. Always see the good in other people. If it helps, you can assume that they only want to do a good job and that they aren’t trying to be difficult on purpose.
To initiate the difficult conversation, you can start by asking, “Hey, I’ve noticed that something bad happened. Can you tell me your perspective about what went wrong?”
Do your best to understand their actions. This will not only help you resolve the problem, but you will also get to know the real cause for their inadequate performance. It could be:
- Your fault for not giving clear instructions
- Their need for extra training
- Technical problems
- Personal problems affecting their work
- Clashing priorities
Knowing the reason behind their poor performance can help you implement better accountability in the workplace.
5. Workplace accountability means giving feedback — even when it’s hard.
We all know that constructive feedback has a variety of benefits in the workplace. But would you believe that it can also help increase workplace accountability?
When you keep the communication transparent and recurrent, you are letting your employees know where they should stand. By knowing where they stand against your expectations, employees will easily see the path for development and success.
Feel free to include positive comments and recognition in your constructive feedback. This will help fuel your employee’s motivation and boost your company’s overall productivity.
You may also use Pathlight to provide clear and data-driven feedback. This application can help you see who is not on track with their goals. You can also course-correct directly through the application.
6. Try using the Accountability Puzzle.
The Accountability Puzzle is a four-piece model created by Henry Evans. It is a great strategy for those who want to seek help in creating accountable dialogue and actions.
Specifically, these are the four pieces of the Accountability Puzzle:
- Filling in the accountability gap with clear expectations. This strategy is usually fulfilled through the use of the S.M.A.R.T.E.R. framework. This framework makes sure that your expectation is specific, measurable, attainable, results-oriented, trackable, ethical, and recorded.
- Specific schedule. Provide a specific time and date for each project. Make sure to align priorities and resources with your major goals.
- One owner for each task. Only one person should own a task.
- Sharing accountability publicly. Declare your commitment to the team so that they can hold you accountable for it.
Both individual and organizational performance will have a chance to improve when you have these four components work hand in hand with your plan. By understanding each piece, it will help you become more productive and to pinpoint who’s accountable for each task.
Read: 5 Reasons Why You Should Show Empathy in Leadership
7. Address the poor performance as soon as possible.
Make sure that you easily spot a poor performance, so you can deal with the issue as soon as it occurs. In this way, you can prevent frustration and conflict to build to the breaking point.
For you to assess issues down the road, you must first figure out the “why” behind the poor performance. For instance, you may find out that the new employee may just need additional training. You may also learn that some employees have too much on their plate.
If you are dealing with a bad employee, it is not enough to only talk it out. Instead, you must provide them with written goals and instructions, so you can be both accountable for your actions.
Read: 7 Types of Miscommunication That Are Hindering Your Team’s Growth
Final Thoughts on Accountability in the Workplace
Once you successfully foster accountability in the workplace, you will be able to achieve better results and outcomes. Plus, you can hold people accountable in such a way that would inspire and support them.
If you want to build accountability in the workplace, you have to do so with transparent and clear communication. Make sure that you express the purpose behind the work, communicate expectations transparently, and build an environment of self-determination.
Pingback: 8 Smart Ways to Improve Team Effectiveness - SprintHR