If you believe that accountability is all about finding ways to blame people when things go wrong, you’re missing the big picture. It’s time to change your mindset.
In a recent article in Investors Business Daily, Steve notes that accountability done right can be a positive process that gives you and/or your group increased productivity and satisfaction.
People want to contribute to a team’s effort; accountability helps them learn how to be more efficient and/or effective at what they do and, as they become successful, what the positive rewards that accountability can bring with it. Greg Bustin, Vistage Chair, executive coach and author/expert on accountability, states that “it’s how successful people get things done. It’s not a punishment nor a blame game.”
Bustin notes that there are 5 steps to create accountability for high-achieving team
- Set clear goals for each team
- Make sure that everyone is clear about their goals
- Set clear KPIs for success, especially deadlines and quality measures
- Respect others on your team
- Reward people for achievement
The Accountable4success.com system (A4S) makes it easy for companies to create such accountability for workers – whether they are in the office, hybrid or remote. Implementation starts with the basic team — the dyad of an individual worker and her/his supervisor.
A4s has four key elements:
- A totally customizable template which outlines the worker’s job description and the key achievable goals which define excellence (e.g., completing all project on time and within budget); identifying 20 new qualified leads each week and closing 10 each month)
- A cadence for reviewing progress and making changes that starts off with daily-check-ins, as things work well reviews can move from daily to weekly, monthly, quarterly and/or annually as needed.
- A declaration and review system for the worker to improve performance for both company and/or individual growth within the company.
- The ability to reset the part of all of the job description and the review cadence as responsibilities change, and the dyad wants to ensure excellence in the new functions. In other words, if a sales person becomes a sales manager, or an assembly line worker becomes a manager the job description changes to reflect accountability for supervising and coaching others. Since these are new skills the review cadence is reset to the starting point of daily check-ins, again.
As workers and teams improve in achieving excellence over time, it’s important that everyone celebrates achievements. In this way, accountability becomes a positive force for everyone including the corporate culture!