{"id":2487,"date":"2018-02-23T16:26:05","date_gmt":"2018-02-23T06:26:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thelimegroup.com\/?p=2487"},"modified":"2018-02-23T16:31:01","modified_gmt":"2018-02-23T06:31:01","slug":"accountability-let-start-doing-it-like-we-actually-mean-it-part-three","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelimegroup.com\/wordpress\/accountability-let-start-doing-it-like-we-actually-mean-it-part-three\/","title":{"rendered":"Accountability \u2013 let start doing it like we actually mean it (Part Three)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>In the first two parts of this blog, we have seen that the leaders of many high-profile organizations are trying to create \u2018cultures of accountability\u2019 to ensure that their people do business in line with their stated vision and values \u2013 thus improving performance and avoiding brand-crushing scandals.\u00a0But this endeavor is failing because you can\u2019t\u00a0mandate<\/u>\u00a0people to feel and behave with true accountability.\u00a0The best you\u2019ll get through a mandated approach is people complying with the articulated rules.\u00a0You can only achieve true accountability \u2013 by\u00a0inspiring, trusting and empowering people to\u00a0<\/u><\/em>want<\/u><\/em><\/strong>\u00a0to do it for themselves<\/u>.\u00a0This, in turn, requires a whole new approach to leading\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

From my work on accountability across a range of organizations and industries, a consistent pattern emerges.\u00a0The higher up the priority list \u2018building accountability\u2019 rises, the more head-on and directive becomes the leader\u2019s style.\u00a0They tell people what\u2019s expected of them with increasing directness.\u00a0They introduce \u2018consequence management\u2019 whereby people\u2019s actions are linked to praise or (more frequently) punishment very rapidly.\u00a0They get rid of people who transgress.\u00a0One initiative gets piled on top of another.\u00a0Sometimes these solutions are quite punitive.\u00a0Other times, they are more positive in tone.\u00a0But what they all have in common is that they are typically experienced as disempowering by the populations of people at which they are aimed.<\/p>\n

\u2018Going for the jugular\u2019 (regardless of how justified it may be from a performance perspective) doesn\u2019t work if your main concern is building accountability, because it disempowers people even more.\u00a0No one likes to be forced.\u00a0It creates fear, risk aversion and a culture of escalation as people work to avoid making decisions lest they make a mistake.\u00a0Work slows down. Bureaucracy and \u2018a**e covering\u2019 becomes the norm.\u00a0As leaders, the more we focus directly on building accountability in our people, the less accountable they feel.\u00a0It\u2019s a catch-22\u2026<\/p>\n

So, if mandating a solution is off the table, what\u00a0does\u00a0<\/em>work?<\/p>\n

A culture of accountability is, in fact, the result of a combination of other factors related to the employee experience \u2013 each of which needs to be purposefully managed.\u00a0In my experience, accountability can much more quickly and effectively be built by working on shifting these underlying, root cause factors, than by hammering away at accountability itself.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s look at the drivers and see why they\u2019re important:<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>Inspiration<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 As discussed in Part Two of this blog, people will only be accountable if they feel inspired by the organization\u2019s vision.\u00a0That\u2019s inspired with a small \u2018i\u2019.\u00a0I am not implying that leaders must give Steve Jobs-style motivational presentations on a weekly basis.\u00a0But I am suggesting that employees, to be accountable, need to find the mission and vision of the organization where they work meaningful.\u00a0They have to have some reason \u2013 beyond just money \u2013 for putting effort and care into what they do.\u00a0Only if they connect to (are inspired by) the vision articulated by their leaders will they\u00a0feel personally driven to do the right thing.<\/em><\/p>\n

2.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Clarity<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 People are only in a position to be accountable if they\u00a0understand what is expected of them<\/em>\u00a0and believe they have enough of what they need \u2013 capabilities \/ assistance \/ resources \u2013 to be successful.\u00a0As leaders, we need to be careful to ensure that our words and actions line up in terms of commitments to provide support to our people.\u00a0Achieving role and goal clarity takes on a whole additional level of complexity in large, matrixed organizations.\u00a0The reality is that a significant proportion of most people\u2019s accountabilities will overlap with other people\u2019s, or be shared across the wider team.\u00a0While it is neither possible nor productive to draw a bright line between individual and shared accountability in every circumstance, the boundaries must be defined enough for people to know how to progress their work.<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Authorship<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 To feel accountable, and to be willing to take on the responsibility, extra effort and risk that accountability implies, people need to\u00a0be the \u2018authors of their own story\u2019<\/em>.\u00a0They need to have enough autonomy and freedom to do things their own way.\u00a0They need to be able to see and feel the consequences of their decisions\u2026 and have enough time and space to course correct when needed.\u00a0Without this breathing room, people will not step up.\u00a0They will tend to play it safe and just do as they are told\u2026 even when it doesn\u2019t make sense.\u00a0Crucially, for leaders, enabling people to have authorship implies giving trust and space \u2013 this can feel extremely difficult to do when your organization is already under brand or performance pressure.\u00a0But it\u2019s simply essential.<\/p>\n

4.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Impact\u00a0<\/strong>\u2013 People will only feel and act accountable if there is a tangible way of measuring their success in contributing to the organization\u2019s vision and values.\u00a0This may be part of the performance management system, or not, but there is a crucial difference between measuring impact and \u2018going for the jugular\u2019.\u00a0Measuring impact is about ensuring\u00a0a line-of-sight between each person\u2019s work contribution, and the inspirational vision and values of the business\u00a0<\/em>(not just achievement of tasks or deliverables).\u00a0It is about ensuring that the work they are doing is making a difference to the end-customer.\u00a0Once it is clear that their work can make a meaningful contribution, then performance management can help direct that work to be done in the best possible way by celebrating success or supporting them to learn if they miss the mark.\u00a0There need to be consistent and motivating consequences for everyone, including at the executive level, for contributing to results and doing it in a way that is aligned with values.\u00a0If leaders are perceived to get away with bad behavior (i.e. ways of operating that are not aligned with our values) because they\u2019re senior or because they get $$$ results, then accountability dies a swift death.\u00a0Consistency and transparency are key.\u00a0As a leader, it is not enough to simply do the right thing, you have to communicate what you intend to do, do it transparently, and then follow up to make sure everyone has the same understanding of what you did.<\/p>\n

5.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Courage<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 Acting with accountability requires courage on several levels.\u00a0Courage to make a judgment call when you believe something needs to be done differently.\u00a0Courage to speak up when other people are not.\u00a0Courage to think differently about ways to serve the customer and the shareholders at the same time.\u00a0Fear suffocates accountability.\u00a0More than once, I have seen well-intentioned efforts around risk and compliance destroy accountability in record speed.\u00a0Then leaders sit and scratch their heads, wondering how it could be that tightening up on communications and processes around risk has failed to halt brand\u2011damaging incidents.\u00a0People will only be accountable if the work environment actively encourages honest conversations, calling out bad behavior, highlighting risks and errors, and challenging the prevailing majority mindset.<\/p>\n

Some of these factors may not, on the surface, appear to be about accountability \u2013 but neglect them at your peril.\u00a0It only takes a deficit in one of these drivers to undermine all your best efforts, and sabotage accountability.\u00a0Any successful attempt to foster a culture of accountability begins with understanding how you stand in these five areas.\u00a0Often, existing solutions will focus on some of them and underplay others.\u00a0Take the time to analyze properly where the blockage is, and solutions suddenly become possible.\u00a0If you would like access to the \u2018Five Factors\u2019 tool I use to assess the current state of accountability in client organizations, please send me a note and I\u2019d be happy to share.<\/p>\n

As leaders, we need to grow new muscles to inspire our people, to role model in high transparency environments, and to be connected without being controlling.\u00a0(We\u2019ll talk about what those muscles are in the next instalment of this blog series.)<\/p>\n

Once we stop trying to tackle accountability head-on and focus instead on remedying the drivers that underpin it, people start doing it for themselves \u2013 which, after all, is what accountability is really all about!<\/p>\n

If you missed Part One of this blog, it can be found here:\u00a0Accountability Blog Part 1<\/a><\/p>\n

And Part Two is here:\u00a0Accountability Blog Part 2<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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