Accountability

In my past workplace accountability always seemed to be this elusive ‘thing’. Today I find many of the  clients I partner with also find ‘it’ a struggle. When speaking about accountability with many different levels of leadership, from the shop floor to the highest level, I seem to get a mixed bag of nuts on how leaders view accountability and how they think they can grow it in their teams. The one thing that is common, no matter where I go, is that all leaders want a culture of accountability within their workplace, they just wrestle with how to make this happen.

I personally screwed this up years ago, when I let my leadership rank and ego be large and in charge.  I tried using a way of authority and discipline to create this thing called accountability and it obviously did not work.  Since then, I have spent countless hours researching and understanding how organizations and teams can create a positive culture that thrives on accountability. I believe there are some simple things that we miss.

The first place to look if you are the leader of a team is in the mirror!  As a leader if you find yourself blaming others for not being accountable and focusing on “who” rather than “what” went wrong then you will struggle! For accountability to grow it must start with you and no one else.  This means leading by example. Now this is an easy catch phrase to toss around, and it may sound good, but upon reflection, are you truly leading by example in all areas of your leadership?

The next thing to consider, is that people want purposeful work and growth within any organization.  If we stifle creativity, and give people the same daily routines, over time they will lose any sort of motivation and the spirit of accountability will grow oh so dim.  Under your care as a leader, it is your responsibility to foster and encourage people’s thoughts and ideas and to look for ways to help foster advancement or growth within a position.

And lastly, people will start to care when they know that you care!  This means becoming a servant leader who lives in humility, always looking for ways to help your team. 

There is no sure-fire way to grow a culture of accountability, like anything good it takes time, patience and a lot of work but there is a huge pay off if you stick with it.