89% of people responded to this question with a ‘Yes’, so it’s time to take action and embrace accountability within the workplace, to gain a positive experience for all.
Accountability within a team requires team members to be clear about what they are doing, commit to their decisions, have responsibility for carrying out their tasks to the standards agreed by the team, inform their team when tasks are accomplished and hold their co-workers accountable if they don’t do this. Team members are dependent on each other to achieve their collective goals.
Positive results by embracing accountability
Mark Samuel quotes in his book, The Accountability Revolution that “Accountability can result in increased synergy, a safe climate for experimentation and change, and improved solutions because people feel supported and trusted.”
In addition, accountability can:
- Fuel individual and team performance
- Strengthen employee commitment
- Encourage creativity and acceptance to challenges
- Improve self-confidence
- Increase job satisfaction
- Raise morale
- Enhance productivity
If your teams are not reaching their objectives, you need to ask the following questions:
- Are we clear about what each member is accountable for?
- Are we learning from past mistakes?
- Are we challenging poor performers and rewarding those that exceed expectations?
Unfortunately, many organisations are not embracing accountability effectively in their organisational culture.
“82% of respondents have no ability to hold others accountable, but 91% of people rank accountability as one of the top development needs they’d like to see at their organisation.”
Source: Workplace Accountability Study
Peer-to-peer accountability
Accountability on a strong team occurs directly among peers.
For accountability to be evident in a team it shouldn’t always require participation/intervention from a team leader. The notion is that peer pressure and the fear of letting a colleague down will motivate a team player more than any authoritative punishment.
For a culture of accountability to thrive, a leader must demonstrate a willingness to confront difficult issues.
However, the role of team leaders is crucial to model this behaviour. They need to be available as support to their team and to intervene if someone’s behaviour is being questioned, reminding them of their responsibilities – both for their behaviour and their results. Otherwise, distrust will grow within their team and members will become devalued, which leads to low employee morale, low engagement and poor productivity.
“One in two managers are rated as doing ‘too little’ when it comes to managing accountability.’
Source: Harvard Business Review, One Out of Every Two Managers is Terrible at Accountability, Overfield & Kaiser
Holding people accountable is the most shirked responsibility of executives. Individuals shy away from tackling behaviour because they find approaching the subject uncomfortable and struggle with the topic. Some may wish to maintain their favourable image rather than offending anyone, but this can seriously damage the team.
Avoiding the issue can cause resentment; individuals may feel they are having to do the job for others, and may even adopt a poor attitude themselves in the belief that they needn’t bother if their colleagues aren’t!
The leader needs to lead by example, set the tone and take the fear out of confronting employees on unacceptable behaviour and not achieving their targets. They must also ensure colleagues are supported if they reasonably challenge someone on this.
Feedback
‘Only 31% of managers said that employees received positive recognition for helping to achieve organisational goals.’
Source: The General Accounting Office (GAO) report Managing for Results: Federal Managers’ Views Show Need for Ensuring Top Leadership Skills (October, 2000).
An important area that links with accountability in building an effective team is providing critical, but constructive, feedback. The closest teams usually struggle with this the most as they don’t want to upset anyone and cause an unpleasant working environment.
Not giving feedback can be one of the most demotivating aspects. By providing feedback on a regular basis, tough feedback can get easier and employees learn from their mistakes. They are letting their peers down more by not saying anything and effecting relationships with all other team members as increased frustration and disengagement can occur. If feedback is given constructively and appropriately then discomfort will rarely be evident.
Ensuring accountability is part of the organisational culture
Leaders have to take charge, set strategy, delegate, manage budgets, meet targets … so it’s no wonder that embracing accountability is seen as just another responsibility which comes with no extra time to deliver.
The Five Behaviours of a Cohesive Team programme tackles how to embrace accountability as one of the objectives to increasing team performance. We offer both train the facilitator programmes and official online accreditation, find out more about The Five Behaviours programme here.
Previous blog articles covering the other aspects of The Five Behaviours of a Cohesive Team.
