In any successful organisation, accountability is the backbone. In my experience as a leader, I have found that many clients of Peopleconnexion who hold leadership positions can struggle to identify what accountability means and struggle to create a culture of accountability. Maybe it takes high-stakes such as the success of your own business where the consequences of not having clearly defined accountability can make or break your business. However, ultimately for any business, it will lead to sub-optimal performance, disengaged employees, and an overall lack of productivity.
Don’t get me wrong – it took me years to be able to clearly define accountability. However, this is how I saw it. If my team, and people, are a mirror image of what they were one year or even six months ago and their performance is the same, I haven’t done my job as a leader to nurture and encourage their growth. I wasn’t accountable.
A workplace accountability survey found that 82% of respondents either “try but fail” or “avoid it altogether.” This trend needs to be talked about so we can all start to foster a productive and engaged workplace.
So how can we do this?
Leaders need to focus on achieving a results-based mindset across teams at every level of the organisation. I say this with caution however. Leaders need to still keep a balanced culture of encouragement and support, not letting the achievement of ‘KPI’s’ take over and dim the moral of the team. What this does mean, is focusing on the results that employees deliver, rather than just the completion of tasks they are required to achieve. Growth does not happen in achievement of one’s key roles and responsibilities. Performance happens when employees are given the responsibility to achieve something strategic and challenging in their role, which should always be set out in clear, measurable success milestones with the support of the leader along the way.
By doing this, leaders can provide more flexibility and autonomy to their teams, leading to higher engagement and stronger, higher-performing teams.
Experts recommend three building blocks of accountability: Expectation, Context/Communication, and Attention. These building blocks are based on the premise that people are fuelled by recognition. If their efforts towards achievement of a result is not recognised, they can easily derail and lose the motivation.
So firstly, expectations. Set high expectations. Growth will never happen if one is only achieving something they are already capable of. Again, when you look back in a years’ time, has your team changed/developed or are they the same?
Secondly, communicate clearly. Communication is a critical behaviour that leaders need to focus on. Being transparent in communications and providing enough detail to help employees understand their roles and responsibilities is essential. Leaders can’t just set arbitrary goals without communicating clear measurement goals and context as to why the goal has been set and what achievement/results will look like. This means creating a clear time frame for completion, defining the parameters of the project or task, and ensuring that One Person Ultimately Responsible (O.P.U.R.) is identified for each critical activity.
However, the communication can’t stop there. it’s not about setting a goal and then measuring achievement once done. Attention towards performance and progress has to be continuous. Leaders must continually monitor progress – and this is the difference between accountable and non-accountable leaders. Leaders must create a culture of accountability that rewards the right behaviours in progression towards a goal and builds engagement and productivity. This is how you create that balance of support and encouragement and not a overbearing results-driven mindset. Be quick to re-align people when they start losing direction, and focus on finding the root cause of issues rather than blaming individuals.
Untimely, a culture of accountability starts with hiring. Leadership expert, Jim Collins, believes that the principle of the “first who” is the single most important factor across all aspects of leadership. To get the right leaders on board, it’s about ensuring that they have the right mentality to reinforce responsibility and accountability. To get the right team to follow that leader is about ensuring they have a results mindset, meaning they can set and achieve goals, they can work autonomously and be accountable and responsible for their own desk’s performance.
By focusing on the right behaviours, such as hiring the right team, communicating clearly, and planning with discipline, leaders can create a results-based mindset across teams, leading to higher engagement and stronger, higher-performing teams. With a strong culture of accountability, organisations can achieve their goals and drive success in the long term.