The Accountability Guy®
Accountability and Leadership, every world-class organization has a performance imperative—a transparent culture of individual accountability. A true culture of accountability demands answers from individuals at every level of a company. It’s not enough for certain teams or departments to have this culture while others do not. For an organization to perform to its full potential, every employee must feel personally accountable for their work and consistently deliver on their commitments.
When an organization lacks the individual and collective accountability needed to achieve the desired outcomes, it’s your leaders who are the solution. Leaders set and deliver the vision to employees in a way that explains why it’s important and how they can contribute as individuals. Like any other organizational standard, if personal accountability is the expectation, leadership must model it themselves. Without this commitment from leadership, it’s unreasonable to expect that others will hold themselves accountable for their work.
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Put simply, personal accountability is doing what you say you are going to do. Personal accountability goes hand in hand with trust; when people follow through on their commitments, they show themselves to be trustworthy. Likewise, when leaders show trust, people are more likely to want to live up to that trust.
Most people don’t want to drop the ball or let their leaders down when they commit to something. Most people approach their commitments in the workplace with the intent to follow through, and why wouldn’t they? It feels good to succeed. However, slipping deadlines and a growing list of tasks that just never seem to get done are all too common.
This scenario, where intentions are not translating into results, is a familiar one. There may be seemingly good reasons for this—a lack of motivation, an intense workload, and so on— but ultimately, it comes down to personal accountability. When viewed in this light, the explanations or reasons for failure become excuses for not following through on a commitment.
Of course, there are also legitimate reasons an individual might not meet the expectations that were outlined. It might not be possible in the given time frame, they might not have the necessary skills or the budget might not be realistic. These circumstances are avoidable, but it’s not only up to individual employees to identify and communicate these challenges. Leaders and managers must also participate in a way that helps individuals follow through on their commitments. Closing the gap between intention and results will lead to greater personal accountability.
The first step in ensuring that assignments are reasonable is for both parties to have a thorough understanding of the expectations. Without this mutual understanding, the individual might fail to meet the desired standards, even if they are following through on their personal commitment.
When setting expectations around a particular assignment, include these three important criteria:
This conversation will be different for every individual. For example, a junior-level employee might need more explanation about how a certain task should be performed.
A more senior-level employee won’t need step-by-step instructions but can contribute more to the discussion about a realistic due date. Tailoring the discussion to each individual is essential when the goal is personal accountability.
In a fully developed culture of accountability, achieving understanding is a two-way dialogue. Employees feel empowered to ask questions such as, “How much time should it take me to complete this task?” And leaders know that they must be prepared with all of the relevant information before assigning a task or project. When accountability is the company-wide standard, individuals know those clear expectations set the stage for success.
Agreeing to complete an assignment is more than just a simple yes or no. It requires careful consideration of whether the what, when, and how of the task are possible. When making a personal commitment, it’s not fair to yourself or others to make promises you can’t keep. Even though it’s good practice to aim high and maintain strong standards, taking on assignments that you can’t deliver as expected will slow the project, impede progress, and hurt your professional reputation.
Before making a commitment or assigning a task, take the time to anticipate the obstacles that might arise and make adjustments accordingly.
All of these steps will help ensure that commitments are realistic and achievable. If you don’t take the time to do this evaluation and adjustment, you will encounter hurdles that will affect your ability to deliver on personal accountabilities. You can’t predict the future, but you can learn from the past and thoughtfully apply those lessons to future commitments.
After confirming a mutual understanding, accounting for potential hurdles, and adjusting commitments accordingly, nothing should remain in the way of delivering on an assignment. It is then up to the leaders to demand personal accountability and to see the project through.
To do so, leaders can measure progress along the way by checking in at previously agreed-upon points along the path to completion. This reinforces that the leader is expecting the promised outcome to be delivered on time and up to the previously discussed standards.
Creating mini-milestones will help individuals to stay on track, especially for larger projects that might feel overwhelming. Leaders and employees can then work together to identify any necessary course corrections that will help individuals fulfil their commitments and stay personally accountable.
In addition to delivering on their promises, there are certain behaviours leaders can display to promote accountability in the organization. When leaders recognize that the deliverables might not be complete as promised, this is an opportunity to provide support and coaching. What productivity or time management skills can be transferred to help an individual follow through on their commitment? What other adjustments might be necessary to ensure that the goal is met? By staying engaged in this way, leaders demonstrate the importance of personal accountability and show that outcomes must be delivered as promised.
Personal accountability is a hallmark of world-class organizations. To create a culture of accountability and leadership the organization must demonstrate it themselves and demand it from others. For the demand to be fair, expectations must be clear and agreed upon, and leaders need to participate in the follow-through. All of these skills are teachable and can be perfected over time with training and practice.
Individuals at every level, including leadership, can benefit from ongoing training. It’s important to remember that even if you have a strong commitment to personal accountability, you might need to learn how to coach others to do the same. Investing in leadership training, equips executives, managers, and supervisors with the skills to help others achieve the highest standards of accountability.
Darren Finkelstein is The Accountability Guy®. This involves being an International Accountability Coach, Business Advisor, Mentor, Author, and Speaker.
Darren works with high-performing teams and individuals across Australia/NZ, UK, USA, Latin America, Europe and Asia to help get results, achieve their wildest dreams, and smash goals. He does this by leveraging over 30 years of experience working in the corporate world and small businesses.
A successful business owner himself, Darren won the Australian Entrepreneur of the Year award for Dent Global after building a wonderful lifestyle business, successfully sold and exited after 15 years.
Before this, Darren worked for over 10 years at Apple Inc. as ‘Manager of Commercial Markets’ during the inspirational Steve Jobs era. While there, he was awarded the prestigious Golden Apple Award.
Darren’s lessons in accountability can help individuals and teams at all levels of a business or organisation across the globe, and are based on actions and results:
Know what to do first
know what to do next
know what to do more of
1. Take the Accountability Scorecard
How accountable are you? Discover your accountability score and increase the probability of smashing your goals and Getting Sh!t Done. Take the quiz
2. Read my book "The Accountability Advantage - Play Your Best Game"
Eliminate procrastination and overwhelm and start playing your best game.
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3. Book a complimentary Accountability Assessment
Invest 15 minutes now and avoid months or years of struggle. If you genuinely need help becoming more accountable, it can’t hurt to find out. Book here.
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