A manager said an interesting thing in my office the other day, "I have plausible deniability if this projects goes wrong." I was a little taken aback -- what exactly does that mean? If a project goes great, I'll take the credit -- but if it crashes, then I have a great excuse? ....where is accountability in business?
As a leader, how do we build accountability in our people? in our organization?One way is to embed accountability everywhere we can in our systems and procedures:
At regular staff meetings (these can be weekly or daily) the list is reviewed by the whole group, and each person on the "who" list is accountable publicly to the team for their tasks. My friend noted that at the first few meetings there was "squirming" as Action Log deadlines were not met, but eventually the staff fell into a focused routine.
a) Action Log: a colleague of mine uses an "action log" to hold her team accountable. She has designed a spreadsheet, listing all the team's tasks in rows and using right hand columns to track "Who" is accountable, by "When", followed by comments on "How" (that is, the details or expectations within that task process) or "Why" (context or strategic reasons). The current date column is conditionally formatted to be red, yellow or green based on the deadline date compared to the current date. That is, as the deadline looms closer, the cell turns to yellow and then red.
At regular staff meetings (these can be weekly or daily) the list is reviewed by the whole group, and each person on the "who" list is accountable publicly to the team for their tasks. My friend noted that at the first few meetings there was "squirming" as Action Log deadlines were not met, but eventually the staff fell into a focused routine.
The added benefit? There is a permanent documented list of accomplishments for the group to look back on - positive reinforcement!
b) Transparency Reporting: Build reporting capability in your department or company that publishes results -- good or bad -- regularly to all stakeholders. What reports to use? Measure those things you want accountability on, and ask those who are accountable to "own the report" and present it to their peers and/or management. Ownership of the issues increases accountability.
c) Team Dynamics - Add a Personal Accountability Buddy: google accountability and you'll find lots of information on using an "accountability buddy". This can be on a personal level (i.e. to help you work out/lose weight) or a business level (i.e. a business or life coach). The principle here is to create an atmosphere where employees are engaged, where they have a high level of trust and can support each other to constantly improve a situation or meet specific goals.
Whether you use a systemic approach or encourage a "team culture", increased accountability will build business credibility and increase customer confidence in your group's results.
