Accountability, the Webster dictionary defines accountability as “an obligation or willingness to accept responsibility or to account for one’s actions”. Seems pretty simple, I do something good or bad I accept the responsibility of my actions, then why do so many people find ways to shrug their accountability?
I can give you lots of reasons I have heard over my lifetime, however for me it really boils down to these two personal traits of human beings, Integrity and Authenticity. Without having a solid foundation of these two principles how can anyone expect to be accountable to themselves or the people around them.
I will get into Integrity and Authenticity in later posts, but first let’s examine the 8 traits of true accountability:
1.Do what you say you are going to do
2.Take responsibility for your actions
3.Always take the blame when things don’t go right
4.Never use excuses as to why you couldn’t accomplish something
5.Share the wealth, when praised for a great accomplishment pass the credit to your team
6.Hold fast in your core values, never compromise who you are
7.Be the first to say “I don’t know”, don’t allow yourself to make up stories to satisfy others
8.Transparency is your favorite tool, you know it brings everyone closer to the result
For those of you in leadership positions you should be asking yourselves if you display these traits and whether or not the people you lead display these. If you are truly honest with yourself in your reflection you will find that there are times you or the people who follow you are not accountable to themselves or their actions.
When leading people it is imperative to have accountability measures in place so that everyone is on the same page, I may feel that I am being very accountable to myself and my job, however as my leader you may not feel the same way. Without setting accountability measures as the leader you run the risk of interpretation, which will only lead to confusion and poor performance.
Take a look at the people you lead and ask yourself this question, do they know exactly what their job is and how to measure themselves to see if they are exceeding the desired outcome? If not it is time to put in place some accountability measurements.
The measurement action is where is leaders get stuck between blame and accountability, if a person following you does not fully understand and have the metrics to measure themselves by then if they fail, your only option is to blame them, reason why, your interpretation of what you expected and their interpretation of what was expected of them were two totally different things.