It is important to consider the accountability within our organization. If you think about companies that you do business with, do they demonstrate accountability? What kinds of results do they get?
Key Characteristics
In order for an organization to be accountable, there must be a few key things in place:
- The organization as a whole must understand and commit to accountability.
- Accountability must start at the top and flow through the organization.
- Areas which have a lack of accountability must be addressed.
- Responsibility, authority, and employee engagement are closely tied to accountability.
The Accountability Cycle
Establishing, monitoring, and ensuring accountability is a continuous cycle:
Ways to Increase Accountability
Accountability is a delicate balance of control, delegation, trust, and authority. In order to make people accountable, you must increase their authority, reduce the controls on them, delegate to them, trust them to do the job, and support them and give them the tools necessary to complete their task. After the job is done, they will be held accountable for the results.
In many situations, accountability and authority will be built slowly and simultaneously. The amount of responsibility and accountability will vary depending on the position, but you should expect a high level of accountability from everyone. For example, a housekeeping staff member may have a low level of responsibility and authority, but you would still want them to be 100% accountable for their work, just as the CEO is.
A lack of accountability in an organization is usually caused by a problem in the organization’s structure, hence our frequent references to processes, rather than people. People do need particular skills and knowledge to be accountable, but these skills will be useless if your organization’s processes do not ask them to be accountable.
If you would like to learn more about Employee Accountability, take a look at our training course Employee Accountability.
