An organization without accountability is an organization in chaos. Accountability has to exist at all levels of an organization—from the Chairman of the Board to the direct laborer on the front lines. Let’s first define what accountability is and then we can discuss why it’s one of our 4 keys to leadership.
Accountability as defined by Merriam-Webster dictionary is: “an obligation or willingness to accept responsibility or to account for one's actions.” Being a leader means you are obligated and have to be willing to accept responsibility. In other words you have to address issues within your team (and yourself) for the sake of your team and organization. What type of issues do you have to hold your team accountable for and what happens if you don’t?
You have to hold your team accountable for their behavior. This can come in many shapes and sizes but to give you some examples—your team has to operate with respect towards each other and you. Respecting each other means honoring deadlines, being on time to meetings, acting professional towards each other at all times, and being committed to your and the teams goals and objectives.
If this level of professionalism and respect is not present it is your obligation to address it. If you allow it to happen you are intentionally creating a negative environment for the rest of your team. Your team is looking to you to be a leader and create an environment conducive to positive morale, innovation, cohesiveness, and an overall enjoyable place to work. If the environment is poor because of lack of accountability your department or organization will self destruct.
If you are unable to hold your team accountable to behave properly and produce their share of work, you will impact other team member’s morale which in turn impacts staff turnover, which then leads to reduced productivity, resulting in higher costs and lower profit margins. And before you know it, either you’re fired or you go out of business.
I’m sure a lot of you know how to hold employees accountable and you just needed a reminder to do so. For others that are wondering how do you hold employees accountable—here are some principles to follow.
First, address the concerns immediately. A number of things happen when you address the issue as quickly as possible. For starters you set the tone that this type of behavior is unacceptable. Not only does the employee who needs correction realize this but so do your other team members. This lets them know that you will not accept negative behavior and you support the employees who do act accordingly. The other side of addressing concerns immediately is that it makes the process easier for you. By addressing the issue immediately, there is less to address and less to correct. If you wait until three or four issues have taken place before addressing them, the bucket of bad things is bigger and there is considerably more that you will have to work your way through.
Second, never be upset and always be respectful. Why would you as a leader attempt to correct inappropriate behavior with inappropriate behavior? When holding an employee accountable your objective is to correct the misbehavior—whatever it may be; not turning in a report, abusing absences, or being verbally disrespectful to you or another employee. You will be successful in correcting their behavior only if the employee sincerely feels you are trying to help them by identifying their inappropriate behavior and showing them how to correct it, because you ultimately want them to be successful. There is never a reason to get upset because if they receive your correction it becomes a joyous occasion and you move on. If they are not responding to your correction you politely let them know what the consequences are if they don’t adjust and that it will ultimately lead to termination.
Third, follow through on your corrective action plan. This means two things. First, if the employee corrects their behavior you agree to not refer to this incident ever again. You assure them that you want nothing more than for this to never happen again and if doesn’t, this will truly be behind you both. Second, if the employee continues to misbehave, you have to follow through on the next step of the corrective plan. Depending on the severity, it may be a written warning, a final written warning, or termination. If you don’t, you will automatically lose credibility with that employee and your team as a leader. They will see you as weak and ineffective.
To sum up the importance of holding your team accountable I’m going to refer to Jim Collins’ book Good to Great. Jim has identified that the second step good organizations must take to become great organizations is to identify First Who…Then What. In other words, hold the poor performers accountable.
Letting the wrong people hang around is unfair to all the right people, as they inevitably find themselves compensating for the inadequacies of the wrong people. Worse, it can drive away the best people. Strong performers are intrinsically motivated by performance, and when they see their efforts impeded by carrying extra weight, they eventually become frustrated.
By holding your team accountable you meet your obligation as a leader and ensure that you not only have the right people on the bus, but that you also have them in the right seat. The reality is that no system or process will ever help you be successful as long as you don’t have the right people with the right attitudes on your team, because ultimtely, it's the people who make you successful!
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