Accountability
“Being accountable and ethical involves striving to incorporate the highest values into one’s work and aspiring to do one’s best in all interactions. It is doing the right thing, in the right manner, for the right reasons, and with the right attitude.”1
While it seems that when we are accountable to something or someone outside of ourselves, our actions have a greater chance of taking place, it is also true that unless accountability starts with a sense of being responsible for, and to, yourself, you’re unlikely to exhibit accountability to others or fully appreciate how to demand it of them in return.
Accountability means more than just doing our job. It includes an obligation to make things better, to pursue excellence, and to do things in ways that further the goals of the organization. If outmoded or wasteful tasks are part of your job description, it’s your responsibility to do something about it.
Whom Do We Hold Accountable?
OURSELVES
Holding yourself accountable is being 100% honest to yourself. This is very easy to do, yet at the same time one of the most challenging things. Though it may be challenging, it has one of the greatest payoffs. When you hold yourself accountable, you tend to be a little easier on yourself in the way of behavior management and checking your intentions before acting or reacting to people and situations or when making choices.
Our TEAMMATES
If we fail to hold our teammates accountable, we enable them to avoid personal responsibility. Inevitably, this leads to a decline in individual and team performance, missed deadlines, and an increase in mediocre results. In addition, without accountability, teammates make commitments that are hollow and meaningless.3 This erodes the trust that binds a great team together. Teammates begin to look only to the leader and not to one another to solve their problems, further undermining the team’s productivity and ability to be a high performing team. Without accountability encouraged and enforced by fellow team members, it’s not possible to build a self-directing, high-performing team.
Our CUSTOMERS, PROJECT MEMBERS, and BUSINESS PARTNERS
In an area of “shared services” or “matrixed teams,” we are, in fact, service providers. And of course we offer as a standard part of our service, a level of accountability to the “customers” (internal and external) that we “serve”. Yet the reality is that we may well be dependent upon them to provide information, participation, access to Subject Matter Experts (SME) or other ad-hoc assistance required for OUR success. If the providers of these inputs or dependencies are not held accountable for delivering upon their commitments, their success, our success, and the likelihood of a successful project will be compromised.
Our OFFICE MATES
Most employees view themselves as members of a certain business function. The idea that they are first members of a cross-functional team and/or the larger organization and second representatives of their special function may be alien to them, having never considered it deeply. The key to working in a close physical environment, such as we have in our office spaces, is being accountable for respect and consideration of others. Respecting workspace etiquette, and holding others responsible for it as well, can make the workplace have a more productive and harmonious environment.4
What Skills Can We Use to Increase Our Accountability and That of Others?
Be organized — Basic organizational skills like time management and daily to-do planning may be old hat, but they’re still the latest. Organization skills allow you to hold yourself accountable to your own commitments and enable you to be ready to proactively follow up with others when a deadline is approaching or participation is required.
Meet your deadlines and hold others to theirs (making commitments) — An agreement to take an action or deliver a certain work product by a specific date is a commitment. A commitment is your “word”. Keep your word, meet your commitments; others may be relying on you! Likewise, expect that others will honor their commitment(s) to you. Agree to and document commitments made and don’t be afraid to remind those with commitments to you, proactively, that their delivery date is fast approaching and offer to help them meet their date if needed. Follow-up, follow through and, if necessary, escalate (calmly and professionally, with supporting details) when missed commitments are impacting your work or the ability for a task or project to move forward.
1 http://transformationalnetwork.com
2 http://spiritualityinu.blogspot.com
4 http://lifestyle.iloveindia.com
—
This post was previously published on An Idea (by Ingenious Piece).
***
You Might Also Like These From The Good Men Project
Join The Good Men Project as a Premium Member today.
All Premium Members get to view The Good Men Project with NO ADS.
A $50 annual membership gives you an all access pass. You can be a part of every call, group, class and community.
A $25 annual membership gives you access to one class, one Social Interest group and our online communities.
A $12 annual membership gives you access to our Friday calls with the publisher, our online community.
Register New Account
Need more info? A complete list of benefits is here.
—
Photo credit: iStock
