One of the most common complaints CEO’s have about their company is a “lack of accountability among staff”. Leaders need to use a three-tiered approach with a specific set of tools at each level. Building a culture of accountability starts with the CEO and trickles down to all levels of leadership and staff. Here are a few tools that in a short period of time, can shift a company towards an improved culture of accountability.
1) Personal Accountability
Personal accountability starts within each individual. An employee needs to feel a personal drive and responsibility to take action for their tasks and role priorities. Managers should not have to dangle a carrot or use a stick to motivate their team. If an individual is engaged, the drive comes from within themselves to perform. It’s no secret, we all have strengths and weaknesses in our behavior patterns. This is why completing a DISC assessment can be very helpful to employees because it gives them concrete feedback about how their behavior patterns support or hinder their performance on the job. Self-awareness is the first step to self-control. Support personal accountability and give the gift of self-awareness to your employees.
This is also a great time for you and your leaders to start learning again. We suggest reading Patrick Lencioni’s book The Ideal Team Player. Reading this book will help you have more clarity of what it takes to be self-aware. Another great part of the book is he covers the core traits of The Ideal Team Player.
2) Team Accountability
When leaders and their teams have self-awareness they can harness the power of improved team dynamics through peer to peer accountability. A foundational book to start growing team accountability and improving team results is Patrick Lencioni’s work, The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team. We also suggest a tool we took from the Scaling Up book by Verne Harnish, the Who/What/When (see my blog 6 Steps for Effective Team Leadership to learn more about this tool).
3) Company Accountability
Core Values are the foundation of a company’s success in building a culture of accountability. These define an organization’s beliefs and cultural expectations. They are the norms which should be the basis for everything within an organization. If you don’t have Core Values, you have accountability issues in your company. They are the behavior rules that guide all decisions and actions in an organization. Staff performance standards are in part based on how well they behave in accordance with your company’s Core Values. Strategic business decisions, customer service expectations, etc. are guided through this lens. Many companies don’t understand the significance or strategic importance of Core Values and they don’t know how to leverage them to create a culture of accountability within their organization (read David Chavez’s blog on Core Values).
Sharpen your leadership skills and establish a culture of accountability at your workplace. Schedule a free coaching session today!