The word for today is accountability. It’s an elusive yet powerful tool for your leadership toolbox.
As a young manager, I don’t think I ever thought specifically about accountability. Sure, there were deadlines and goals, but as my teams reached those, seldom, if ever, did I include intentional accountability.
It was later in my career that I discovered the incredible power of accountability. I was invited to join a men’s mastermind group. At each meeting, we shared the truth about where we stood with important areas of our life. We banded together to hold each other accountable for accomplishing the growth and change we each desired.
During the following several years, the collective outcome from that group enriched lives, expanded businesses, and strengthened families. Powerful indeed!
Here are three, very important ways accountability impacts you and those around you.
It Starts with You
The leader must set the tone, communicate the vision, and establish expectations. “Inspect what you expect” is a wise old saying. Once you establish the expectations, you have to monitor the progress.
Team members failing to meet expectations must be called to accountability.
But accountability isn’t punitive. It’s responsible.
Accountability gives the team the sense of “I’ve got your back.” If the leader sets that tone, then it is much easier for others to follow.
Leaders can demonstrate accountability by being accountable to the team. Let them know when hurdles are met, but also when they are missed. Which hurdles? YOUR hurdles.
Acknowledge when you need to stand up to something that has slipped or fallen behind; i.e. below standard. Call yourself out for that and let the team know you’re serious about meeting those expectations yourself.
Your Teams Want It
Yes, it’s true. People inherently know whether they have met the mark or not.
Among your best performers, they are looking for that small margin of gain which they truly believe is there. Despite how gifted and talented your team may be, the best performers know there is more that can be achieved.
If you, as their leader, ignore this margin, your action (by avoiding the subject) becomes a disincentive to your best performers. You’ll lose their respect.
It would be like you denying them one element of what it takes to build job satisfaction.
For your workers who are already on the cusp of performance, they too know they should be doing more. If you ignore this part of accountability with them, then they will slide further away from the desired performance.
Your Peers Expect It
In every 360 review I’ve ever been a part of, there is a mention from the peer raters that the subject person needs to do something with accountability.
Either they need to see it across the organization or within the team. Simply put, accountability is at a premium regardless of your position in the organization.
When you ask a sister department for support, they know they should be accountable. If you don’t manage that expectation, you will lose face with your peers too.
What About the Servant Leader
When I coach clients in the area of accountability, the ones who rate high on the servant leadership scale are often soft on accountability.
Consciously or unconsciously they feel enforcing accountability will detract from their collaborative leadership approach. They err on the side of letting people figure things out for themselves i.e. the “less than” performance issues.
For all the reasons cited above, even the best servant leader needs to hold people accountable. And the great ones do.
Set Goals That Are Measurable
Be sure your expectations have measurable attributes to gauge the “wins”. What does success look like? Think about that as you plot the strategy for your team. Then clearly communicate your view of success.
Define it for the team. That way, you have a clear goal by which you can hold others accountable.
Leading Your Team’s Accountability
Finding the right tools to lead your team’s accountability is not hard. For the leader, accountability is about setting the expectations, then following up on them.
Many years ago I was introduced to Big 5 Performance tools for doing just that.
With Big 5, you and your team establish five things you want to accomplish during the month. At the end of the month, you report on those five and set a new five for the next month. Right at the start of the new month, you sit with each of your team members and review the report; aligning expectations and talking about results.
That is great accountability.
The report is simple but elegant in nature. Using Big 5, you are always on the same page with your team. It’s a great coaching tool for you, as a leader, to implement for your team.
Let me stress Big 5 is not a “big” report. It’s a one-line summary of each task you decide is a priority. Many of my clients administer it using email between the manager and the employee. (Although there is a cloud-based app to get it done).
Using a tool like Big 5 can increase clarity on the expectations and deliver regular accountability for everyone on your team.
Leave a comment. Tell us the approach you have used to hold your team and yourself accountable.
