Accountability is not a Four Letter Word!
It’s time for us to talk about Accountability!
(If you had an internal reaction to that sentence, you are probably not alone.)
As leaders we don’t like to talk about accountability, and our team members may like it even less.
Accountability can have a sense of the punitive to it; when things don’t go well, accountability conversations can be focused on what went wrong, and who was responsible. That is not the basis for an engaging and energizing conversation, and it’s not helpful to us achieving our goals and delivering on our mission.
Accountability is one of the topics that comes up miost in leader conversations, but it is the subject we least know how to handle, or least want to engage in.
How can we reframe the concept in a way that promotes positive conversations and positive outcomes? Let’s see if I can help.
First it might be helpful to understand the difference between Accountability and Responsibility:
Accountability is based upon the outcome, and ultimately belongs to one person—Accountability cannot be shared, and the level remains the same over time. Think of President Harry Truman’s famous phrase, “The buck stops here!” Everyone knew when he said that, he was ultimately the person charged with the outcome.
Responsibility is based upon the task or the work that needs to be completed. Responsibility can be shared among multiple team members, and the level of responsibility can shift over time.
Based on the above, the leader is always ultimately accountable for the outcome. When we are having “accountability conversations” to determine what might have gone wrong, we leaders always need to look inward first.
The ultimate goal is for our team to be responsible and accountable for initiatives and outcomes but to get there we must turn accountability on its head. How can we do that? Here are some steps that might help…
Reframe accountability from backward facing to forward-facing. Frequently we think about accountability as a backward facing punitive exercise, when it is more helpful to think of it as an opportunity to create understanding and agreement. Rather than spending time in conversation after discovering what went wrong and how it could have gone better, perhaps we should spend most of our time up front, having conversations about what can go well, and how we can ensure success. Taking time to explore the task, initiative, or project, and agreeing up front on the positive outcome of the endeavor helps to support collaboration and builds buy-in from those responsible for the work.
Establish clarity on the goal, outcome, or result. In your up-front conversations, spend time agreeing on what success looks like:
How will we know when success is achieved?
What are the metrics that will be tracked and measured?
What do we need to negotiate on (timelines, resources, prioritizations)?
Agreeing on these expectations up front will help inspire positive direction and help those responsible understand when things might be off track.
3. Learn what might get in the way. Every initiative or project will experience a bump in the road or an outright roadblock. Leaders should plan to spend time up front exploring what might get in the way of a successful outcome and agree on a plan of how success might be achieved despite any potential roadblock.
4. Create options for “Plan B”! Given the exploration about what might get in the way, what are alternative pathways to success? The leader and tam member responsible should spend time planning for how things might go wrong, discussing questions such as:
• If priorities change, how will we rescope the success measures?
• What will we do if key resources needed for success are focused elsewhere?
• Where is there room for negotiation?
While there are always unexpected organizational or leadership changes, planning for agility in the beginning of the accountability process helps responsible team members to flex when things get difficult or when success measures change.
5. Agree on cadence and format for updates. Sometimes as leaders, we are not clear on how or when we want to receive updates. When we delegate a task or ask someone to agree to lead an initiative or project, and we don’t realize things may be off track, this can result in us moving to the backward facing or punitive view of accountability.
When something goes wrong, and the “surprise” conversation happens after, we have not done our job; we first need to be accountable to ourselves and to our people. Agreeing up front on the frequency and format for updates keeps our accountability process proactive and planning for success.
Ultimately, accountability is about ensuring success—for us as leaders, our teams, and our customers; when we as leaders can flip our view of accountability to a proactive and forward facing one, everyone succeeds:
Hold skilled conversations at the beginning help to align team members and tasks based upon their willingness and motivation.
Focus on the quality of the dialog between you and your team members. This becomes more important than the assigned due date.
Allow for negotiation about success measures, timelines, and resources during the up-front discussion. This helps to strengthen commitment and ownership
Two authors whose work I admire have outlined specific steps and frameworks leaders can use to help with Accountbility. Elaina Noell has published “Inspiring Accountability in the Workplace” where she presents a clear framework and model that helps leaders and teams succeed. Elaina’s model ties the model to other success measures such as engagment, retention, and neuroleadership. Elaina also has a great eCourse available.
Nate Regier Ph.D. has released his book “Compassionate Accountability” which helps leaders understand their own innate approach to Accountability and conversations.
In either case, leaders always need to go first when it comes to Accountability. Ubnderstanding your own approach to setting goals, creating clear outcomes, baseline or crucial conversations, and rewards and recognition has a profound impact on your own success and the success of your teams.
What steps can you take to flip your view of Accountability?