One of the most frequent complaints I hear from managers has to do with accountability: “No one is accountable for that”, “Things would work a whole lot better if people were accountable”, “We need more accountability around here.” I agree, accountability is missing and most organizations could definitely use more of it. Unfortunately, managers are looking in the wrong place to find accountability.
Managers seem to believe that accountability is a personal attribute or characteristic of someone, like being introverted, or charismatic. So when they say “we need people to be accountable”, they are talking as if they have nothing to do with the fact that accountability is missing. They are wrong.
Accountability is something that is learned. It is something that is built and developed. It is built and learned through relationships where accountability is part and parcel of the relationship. Relationships where both people are accountable, but for different things: one for doing something and the other for seeing that it is done. What this means is that if accountability is missing, then it is missing in that particular relationship. I have seen many cases in which a person is not accountable in one relationship, but is accountable in another. If accountability were a personal attribute or characteristic, it would be present in all relationships.
If managers are looking for greater accountability, then they need to be sure that they are fulfilling their side of the accountability equation. This means that they are sure that people know WHAT they are to do, deliver, or produce, by WHEN they are to have it completed, and WHO they are accountable to. If these are not in place, then you can try to hold someone to account, but for what? Not doing something they didn’t know was to be done? For not completing something according to some timeline they didn’t even know about? Or for not communicating to the person or persons they didn’t even know they were to communicate with? If you want people to be accountable, you have to give them the things they need in order to succeed, otherwise accountability becomes some kind of blame game.
Oh yeah, there is one other thing. If you are sure people know WHAT is to be done, by WHEN it is to be done, and to WHO they are accountable, then you have to follow up with them at the due date to find out if they succeeded or failed. When you follow up on the things you assign or ask for, people learn that you will ask them to account for the results, positive or negative. Just knowing this begins to build accountability.
What more accountability in your workplace? Then stop waiting for people to somehow magically become more accountable, and start building accountability into your relationship with them by making sure that WHAT, WHEN, and WHO are clearly in place and then following up to have them account for the results.
