The Accountability Guy®
Of all the soft skills a person can acquire, accountability is the foremost. When accountability comes into the picture, you can meet your goals and reach the level you wish to be at.
As a leader holding yourself and your employees accountable is extremely important. When people are held accountable, their ethical, social, and moral demeanour changes to fulfil their accountability.
Leaders make ethical decisions to promote the organization to move in the right direction. Leaders are meant to uphold sustainable, forward, and ethical behaviour in an organization. Accountability and ethical consideration go hand-in-hand and make management and leadership smooth.
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As organizations become increasingly dependent on the way they interact with the outside world and with their employees, ethical considerations play an essential role in the way an organization is perceived. Ethical considerations also depend on the way employees work within the organization and interact with organizational goals.
When a person or an organization behaves ethically, it doesn’t mean they always do the ‘right thing’. Ethical behaviour means the person or organization is acting in a socially responsible manner.
This social responsibility comes as a part of inept behaviour and is not necessarily defined by the legislation. Even if something might not be a part of the legislation but can be seen as ethically sound, it becomes the employee, leader, and management’s responsibility to fulfil that action.
As a leader, you will have to take several steps to ensure your employees are ethically taken care of. Some examples of ethical consideration in the management and leadership roles include:
Ethical considerations lead the organization and all the leaders to be accountable towards the external and internal forces.
Externally, accountability is necessary for a leader to keep the organization going in a business environment. Internally, accountability is needed for a team to stay intact with happy and productive employees.
The two main methods leaders use to promote an ethical and productive environment within the organization are whistleblowing and accountability. Let us have a look at the two methods and how it affects leadership.
Whistleblowing is a method used by leaders wherein one employee might report on the misconduct of others. To promote the culture of whistleblowing, leaders often employ methods such as hotlines and incentives.
While whistleblowing has been proven as a successful method for years, it cannot be used as the primary leadership method. When whistleblowing becomes a part of the team’s culture, a looming fear of discord and disunity is created within an organization.
Due to the whistleblowing culture, employees do not conduct ethical considerations. Instead, they stick to the rules and make ethically wrong decisions to stay true to the legislation.
Accountability is the leadership method that allows each employee to be responsible for their actions. Through accountability, each person will conduct activities according to what feels true to them, regardless of what the legislation might state.
When an accountability culture is instated in an organization, a state of unity develops within the team. When there’s unity, people undertake ethical considerations seriously. Therefore, the organization becomes more productive and ethically sound.
When accountability is applied to a leadership and management structure, each employee assumes responsibility for their actions. So, when a person cannot undertake their responsibilities for whatever reasons, others take up their responsibilities for a short period.
When it comes to leadership and management in the corporate world, accountability is not the default. Instead, a leader who uses accountability methods within their teams is rare and exceptional.
Leaders must form a good rapport with their employees to apply a culture of accountability within a leadership role. Once the employee and leader rapport is set, the entire team can sit together and have an accountability talk, wherein the actions and responsibilities of each individual are discussed.
When an entire team is aware of each other’s stance on a particular action, ethical consideration and accountability can occur. If accountability plays a vital role in an organization, most major ethical infractions can be dismissed through personal responsibility.
Accountability plays an important role when it comes to ethical considerations in the form of management and leadership. It is only through assumed and imposed accountability that employees can be truly ethical in their actions.
Ethical leadership positively impacts employee accountability at work. The higher the employee accountability, the better their chances of taking the organization forward and achieving its goals.
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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