Leadership accountability: Build accountability leadership in your team

By Darren Finkelstein
By Darren Finkelstein

The Accountability Guy®

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Accountability transforms individuals into self- discipline and proactive. If we have accountable team members, they will produce high standards of the outcome, will be respectful of each other, create a culture of trust at work and be responsible for making decisions for their respective projects. The employees are empowered to make proper decisions at the right time. The theory of accountability all sounds good, in theory! But have you thought about what will happen to these employees if their leadership lacks accountable behavior? Will they continue to practice responsible behavior? Then the answer is no! It’s not only the team employees we are looking at to practice accountable behavior but also the leadership that needs to create exemplary examples for all. So, first, let’s look at what leadership accountability is. Next, we will discuss how we can build accountability leadership in teams.

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What is leadership accountability?

Leadership is defined as good management and leadership skills led by a good manager or team leader. We are looking for a great leader who can lead his team with exemplary standards. Now how do we define a great leader, or what are the qualities of a great leader? How is accountable leadership different from a great leader, or in another way, what makes a great leader accountable? So, a great leader would be open to ideas, a great listener, and stand up for his team’s failures and successes; he would not be authoritative but would help his employees brainstorm for more ideas. He is always ready to appreciate the excellent work done and help them understand why and where they failed. So, now we will look at how a great leader can become accountable and build accountability leadership in the team.

Build accountability leadership in the team

Communication

Clear communication is the key to developing a good working relationship. If the leader can communicate his ideas and thoughts openly and provide clarity of work and expectancy to his employees, he is enabling employees to focus on their tasks.

Feedback

We have discussed this repeatedly; feedback is crucial for improving and developing employees’ working standards. If the employee can accept the feedback given, he will learn from his mistakes and make efforts to improve. But how will you remember to take the feedback? The leader himself must set this example. An accountable leader must demonstrate to his employees how to accept the feedback from everyone around them and how they can bring in the necessary changes to improve.

Build trustworthy relationships

An accountable leader must demonstrate how to build excellent and reliable connections with everyone at work and how it would impact his goals. So, if he sets suitable examples for his team, they will follow the same.

Setting goals for himself

While setting goals for his team members, he must share with his team how he has set goals for himself too. That would let his team members appreciate that even their leader has to meet his targets.

Standing for failures

He can respect as a leader when an accountable leader learns to stand up for his and his team’s losses and shows them that he is there to protect them. This quality of responsibility and ownership encourages employees to stand up for their mistakes and failures.

Listening and brainstorming

Another vital quality of accountable leaders is that they are great listeners and encourage brainstorming sessions with the employee, which help them to make essential decisions to tackle challenges proactively.

Sharing progress of your achievement

It is essential as an accountable leader as you share your targets; you also share the milestones that you have achieved to ensure that you can meet your targets on time. This way, the team members will gain confidence in your method, and then they will also set the same techniques to meet their own goals.

Coaching and rewarding

As you set exemplary accountability standards, you must learn to coach the same practices to your team members. Now, it can be via hiring an external coach or getting an internal team expert to speak about accountability. Once the employees have learned about responsibility, you let them demonstrate and then give them feedback to improve. If they are doing a good job, then it is vital to reward the employees as accountable leaders.

Conclusion

Leadership can set good examples for their employees. The leadership team is like the accurate role models for their team. Therefore, if the leader follows in the footsteps of accountability, the employees will learn to observe and demonstrate the same. This behavior will help to build an accountable culture in the organization. All the employees would learn to respect and trust each other. Teams would learn to share their problems with their managers. The communication will be open and transparent. And everyone will be dedicated to their assignments and goals.