The term accountability is used alot in our culture. We often hear the refrain "we need to hold someone accountable!". The term is used synonomously with responsibility. Even Wikipedia defines accountability as "blameworthiness". In our experience, however, high performing teams and high performing people distinguish between accountability and responsbility.
Accountability, one of the 6 principles of high performance, is a personal choice you make to influence some aspect of the world. It is more personal and involves a deeper level of commitment than responsbility.
In a High Performing, Accountable culture, leadership shifts from one where the leader orchestrates the fulfillment of outcomes to one where the leader creates an environment that unleashes the full potential of individuals and raise everyone’s performance together.
Leaders often unwittingly dampen the potential of their employees by creating a dynamic that limits the emergence of accountability:
When introducing strategic or transformational change, we often see leaders think through the rational components, which our brains understand, but fail to address the components that impact our willingness and ability to take action – our physical and emotional selves. We often don’t engage or employees in a way that enable them to overcome their own fears, contribute to the solution, and feel personally connected to the overall outcomes.
In our experience, tools such as functional roles & responsibilities and job descriptions are important – and best used as starting points. They address the intellect by providing important structure for individuals and teams to gain clarity and understand expectations. By themselves, however, these tools don’t address the issues that are triggered in periods of change – Why are we changing? What does this mean for me? Will I be competent on the other side of change?
Absent these needs being addressed, employees are more likely to retract into their own comfort zone than lean into new challenges. Thus, employees tend to want their jobs to be clearly defined, when what is needed is to provide a platform for employees to address the unknowns.
Accountability shows up when employees choose to embrace where the organization is going and take action to help get there, regardless of role.
Three key steps need to happen to set the culture for Accountability to flourish:
In our experience, if leaders provide the right environment with the right tools, people will choose in – and learning, development, and higher performance rush in.
Do you have a high performing, accountable team?