5 Cs of Accountability

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By Darren Finkelstein

The Accountability Guy®

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We all know about accountability, and we all know how it helps in achieving good results. Accountability is critical to building strong employee engagement, goal-oriented and proactive behavior, and a respectful team environment. We have also learned about the ways or the methods to teach them and bring in the mind shift. Once you have achieved the mind shift level and you want to make sure that they remain at the same level of understanding and demonstration, we should create key highlighting aspects of accountability as the pillars. This way, when the employees notice highlighted elements around them, they will remember to demonstrate the same. So, how do we highlight the key aspects of accountability?


For that, the experts at our organizations have created an exceptional framework for the teams and organizations to follow. The key components highlighted in the framework are – clarity, common goal, communication and alignment, coaching and demonstration, and consequences and outcomes. We will now discuss our framework in detail and step by step.

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Five c's of accountability

Clarity

At the time of joining, one must clarify the job role, the tasks you are assigned, or the expectations you must perform. So, getting clarity about your duties from the manager or the organization is step number one. And it is the organization’s accountability that they must provide clarity of the job, role, and duties that you are expected to perform. So, accountability starts from getting clarity of all expectations, whether from the organization’s or employee’s perspectives. With good job clarity, the employees will perform better.

Common Goal

As a team or even an individual, you must understand the goal or purpose one has to aim for. When the employees are aware of the target they have to achieve, they will be focused on it. They will make sure that they work together respectfully as a team. The employees must understand that they are working collectively towards the company’s performance and target. When they are focused on their goals, they perform better; employees can plan better and will be proactive toward the challenges they might face.

Communication and alignment

Communication is a critical aspect when it comes to building any understanding in the organization. The managers and leadership management must demonstrate that they are always available for discussions and other innovative ways to get better results. This way, the employees will be free and confident to discuss their ideas and challenges, and managers will be open to various opportunities to improve overall performance. Communication can solve all the employee issues among the team members. The team members will learn to respect each other when they talk openly. Communication can help bridge all the gaps between the team members and help build level of trust and respect amongst each other. Also, the team members will learn to adapt to each other’s strengths and weaknesses.

Coaching and demonstration

When you plan for a continuous approach toward the behavior of accountability, it becomes essential to keep it in your training plan. You have an accountability specialist in your training department or hire an external coach who can explain and teach in detail about accountability. Then there comes the second step after coaching is demonstrating and evaluating. To see where you need to complete the critical stage. When you hire a professional coach, he can explain the consequences and outcomes and even relate the situations to their own experiences. That would give the employees more confidence to practice and demonstrate the same. The coaches will also help in bridging the gap with the differences.

Consequences and outcomes

Every job that you have performed will have shown the results. It would help if you looked at the consequences as well. One must look at the reasons why they lacked behind or why they faced failure. Then look at the possible ways of improving their performance next time. When the manager gives feedback, the person needs to take that feedback positively. Once they accept their feedback, then that will allow them to improve effectively. Ultimately, we all want good performance that can deliver good results.

Conclusion

Accountability is relatively easy to achieve and maintain at work. This accountability framework for the team will help the organizations maintain effective accountability practices. Accountability can help improve goal-oriented behaviour and more dedication toward job roles. Accountability will be more effective when a professional coach teaches it. They can deliver the right message, and they will evaluate the practices at work and then can help bridge the gap. Accountability can help produce improved behaviour and results. So, please speak to the professional coach and let your employees improve and let them learn the importance of accountability. Accountability teaches the important lesson about communication to the employees; it helps in creating open door policy.