In an earlier article we defined accountability as being answerable for your actions or lack of actions. It’s doing what you say you will do…doing what you have agreed to do, even when it means going outside of your comfort zone. It is a serious matter because without systematic accountability in an organization there is little chance of high performance.
What happens where there is a lack of accountability? Nonperformers thrive while the diligent staff picks up the slack. The stress level rises, communication drops and territorialism is rampant.
How does an organization go about creating a culture of accountability where everyone agrees to work together for the good of the organization and actually does so. The culture of a company takes on an element of accountability when employees are self-motivated to contribute to the overall success of the company. Throughout history however there have been many examples of companies that relied on threats and intimidation in order to assure accountability. This works so long as the supervisor is always present with a gun to everyone’s head to assure compliance. When the overseer turns his/her back however, the employee’s behavior may revert to something less than accountable. This kind of work environment fosters an adversarial relationship between management and line workers where the best case is that line workers will only do the minimum level of production in order to avoid getting fired.
So, the standard of accountability must rely on something other than external control. Experts have noted that organizational success happens when all staff are focused on the same goal. But how does this happen? First of all, everyone needs to hear what the organization’s mission, vision and goals are…and hear about it repeatedly. This necessitates a lot of interaction between management and line staff. The second part of these conversations includes a specific plan for everyone in the organization to follow in order that their piece of meeting the organizational objective is followed. Everyone from top to bottom should feel like they own an important piece of the process in order for the organization’s overall goal to be achieved. They should see that their job and the way it is done makes a difference. This awareness should guide their work behavior from one hour to the next. Company leaders need to help everyone see what specific behaviors will lead to the company realizing its goals and which ones will reduce the possibility of that happening. When achieving the company’s goal becomes important to the employee so that it drives specific behavior, accountability levels tend to be very high and remain so on a consistent basis. Finally, employees need regular feedback about how the company is doing and about the importance of their efforts to organizational success. When success is not achieved, leaders need to search for systemic reasons why rather than look for some employee to blame. Success on the other hand needs to be recognized, celebrated and rewarded.
By: Larry Wenger
About the Author:
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