Do you sometimes go home at night, scratching your head, wondering what you could do to teach your staff to be more accountable? When you issue an instruction, is there always a good excuse why your directive was not followed? When people make a mistake, do they always "throw someone else under the bus" as opposed to accepting part of or total responsibility for the mistake? Do staff manage be absent from "mandatory" meetings? Or, do they call in sick on a day when they are supposed to play a key role in a presentation to a new funding source? Do other supervisors allow problem situations to continue on and on without a solution? If these questions pop into your mind from time to time, you probably have a lot of company. But they may also indicate that there are some accountability problems in your organization. How does one create an organization that is accountable from top to bottom? It's not an easy task and it will not happen overnight. But here six tips which you should try. They will work whether you consider accountability issues to to be isolated to one person or department or if you suspect they are more widespread.
1. Identify the problems that a lack of accountability causes in your organization. Make sure you have a clear vision of what things might look like if and when accountability improves. Set up a way of measuring how often these problems occur. Make sure everyone knows what you are doing. Celebrate the success of a positive trend; that is, fewer problems resulting from a lack of accountability.
2. Drive out fear. Encourage honesty by emphasizing what can be learned from mistakes that are made. Respond rationally to problems that occur; keep voice volume down, avoid a sarcastic response and public criticism of the person who acknowledged the mistake. As a boss you might think that staff should not be afraid of you, but to some extent they will be. If you want people to acknowledge the truth about their own behavior you'll do your best to make it easy for them to admit a mistake.
3. When a mistake happens, look beyond individual performance and examine the system that made it possible for the mistake to occur. If you just discipline the staff member involved and think that the mistake will not occur again, you're probably wrong. Deming said that most errors are 80% the fault of an operational system and only 20% due to individual performance problems.
4. Listen. Don't let your frustration and emotion govern your response to the point where you are no longer listening to an explanation of "what happened." Really listening may give you clues to some part of your organizational structure or process that needs to be changed.
5. To every extent possible, involve people in developing solutions and determining appropriate action. They are more likely to follow through on a direction that they have helped to create.
6. Be a positive example yourself. Don't be afraid to admit your own mistakes or things that you are struggling with. No one expects you to be perfect, but do what you promised to do and make sure everyone knows that you are committed to improve your personal performance... to learn how to be a better leader. Give meaning to the idea that training is for everyone, not only people at the bottom of the ladder.
When staff are accountable you will find that programs run more efficiently and everyone's commitment to the work to be done is at a higher level. Not only will production increase from those who in the past have not been accountable but the higher performers will respond positively as well, since now they know that everyone is expected to contribute.
If you were expecting this to be a description of creative methods of discipline and more effective ways to "crack the whip" I am sorry to disappoint you. Accountability at its best is a feature of organizational culture which is maintained by leaders who can successfully get their employees to commit to it because they have adopted accountability as part of who they are.
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