Accountability can quickly fade when industry pressures impact a workforce. The great resignation is a perfect example of the issue with employee accountability, which even 82% of managers agree is limited – at best.
As a whole, the great resignation put a lot of the workforce in turmoil because holding people accountable could lead to more people leaving.
Managers had to grin and bear it, but good business leaders know that:
- Accountability is a tool
- Keeping people on the same page is necessary
- You can keep employees committed without pointing fingers
Lack of accountability is, ultimately, a leadership issue. As a leader, people look to you to pave the way in the workplace, and your approach can bring people together.
Holding everyone accountable – even yourself – can strengthen your workforce. The five points below can help you move in the right direction.
1. Master Accountability
Pointing fingers is the wrong way to hold people accountable. No one wants to be singled out for their actions, nor do they want to be the sole employee you hold responsible. Mastering accountability is a strength of all effective leaders.
You must learn to:
- Clarify your expectations
- Communicate your expectations
- Reinforce your expectations
Strong leaders can read the room and talk to their team in a way that shows appreciation while also holding everyone accountable. You can work on this by being clear about the company’s mission, vision, values, and culture.
Employees should know their roles and responsibilities, and teams must know your expectations and your mission for them.
Defining each employee’s roles and responsibilities keeps everyone on the same page and helps them understand where they fit in the business’s mission.
2. Support Your Team
With the right approach, you can help create a work culture once you’re sure that your employees know their goals. It’s as easy as providing everyone with the support necessary to meet those goals.
Great leaders will:
- Give employees the tools necessary to succeed. Your team may be using the best tools, or there may be better solutions to help them meet their goals. Spend time reviewing the tools that your workforce uses, talk with team leaders to find out what’s working and what’s not, and see if there are tools that you can add to “make life easier.”
- Remain a supportive leader. Reaching goals means learning new tools, implementing new techniques, and maximizing efficiency. Remain supportive of teams and check on individual employees to ensure they have the resources necessary to succeed.
- Train and educate. Employees who you train and educate have an easier time reaching their goals and success. Train your team on cutting-edge approaches so that they can all be highly productive employees with exceptional skills.
Going the extra mile and being supportive creates bonds between leaders and employees. Your effort will show your team that you’re in the trenches with them and will also be accountable to help them reach their goals.
Measuring this success is crucial to knowing what’s working and not working with your approach.
3. Measure Accountability of Leaders and Employees
Measuring accountability can be challenging. It’s easy to assume that everything is on the right track if you’re meeting deadlines and getting the work done.
The reality is that workplaces often have stragglers and underachievers – and that applies to both leaders and teams.
To truly measure accountability, focus on tracking tangible targets that allow you to measure the success of your team and leaders (yourself included).
For Employees
Let’s say that Jim is on your sales team. He misses his goal for the week, but everyone else hits it. Start by looking at these 3 questions:
- Is this a trend or an isolated instance?
- Are there any extenuating circumstances?
- Is this a skills/knowledge issue or an attitude/habits issue?
With this information, you’re in a much better position to help Jim achieve his objectives.
For Leaders
Leaders must also be held to the same level of accountability as anyone else in the organization. If you’re not on track to reaching your goals, address the problem immediately.
When leaders hold themselves accountable, it cultivates a healthy work culture and sets an example that your employees will follow. Research shows that 2-in-3 employees are impacted by their work culture every day. If leaders can recognize their own shortcomings and take steps to change, employees will follow in their footsteps, and accountability will naturally become a part of your culture.
4. Create Consequences
Even if you provide an employee with all of the support and tools they need to succeed, they may still fall short of reaching their goals.
What’s the next step in this scenario?
If you think it’s strictly a motivational issue, you can put something on the line to encourage that team member to do better. Make sure it’s concrete and measurable, with clear rewards and consequences. And be sure to follow through timely!
However, often constructive redirection is the best approach.
- Provide clear and descriptive feedback. The employee must understand what behavior is unacceptable if they are to change it.
- Ask why they acted the way they did. Perhaps your employees acted the way they did for a good reason. Understanding their thinking can help you make sense of the situation and potentially find a resolution.
- Work together to find a solution and develop an action plan. Make this a collaborative effort.
- Agree on follow-up procedures and encourage your employee.
- Be sure to acknowledge their effort, if appropriate
Constructive redirection can help employees turn things around.
As part of this process, remember that when evaluating employees, you need to be focused on things that are within their control. For example, if a member of your sales team isn’t reaching their goals, constructive redirection may not be the appropriate response. A better solution may be to offer coaching or training to help improve or develop skills.
Another important consideration here is whether or not the employee’s role matches their interests and skills. I have seen quite a few employees improve their performance after switching to a role that aligned with their strengths.
Consider performing a Working Genius assessment to ensure you’re putting the right people into the right seats.
Final Thoughts
Accountability can be a tool to facilitate improvement and help employees reach their goals. Because when employees are satisfied in their roles and achieving their objectives, they’re often more productive and motivated to work.
But to maximize the effectiveness of this tool, make sure that you’re supporting your team, setting consistent rules for everyone, and creating consequences when necessary.
To learn more about accountability or to schedule an appointment, click here.