Creating the Accountability Culture

Simple steps you can take to encourage shared and personal accountability in your organization.

In order for a leader to make a positive impact on an organization, he or she must demonstrate the ability to produce results. Although there are many qualities of successful leaders, there is one they all have in common: leaders create an environment that ensures critical goals—and the events leading to them—are accomplished. This is most easily done by creating a system or culture of accountability.

Much has been written about goal management and the role leaders play in making sure objectives are accomplished. Simply put, however, there are only four things that must happen for a leader’s desired outcomes to occur:

1. Identify, then communicate critical goals and the behaviors required to realize them
2. Find a simple way to measure the occurrence of critical behaviors
3. Give individuals or teams feedback regarding the success or failure of their behaviors
4. Have meaningful consequences related to success or failure of each objective

Communicate goals explicitly
Although the first step seems obvious and simple, it is amazing how frequently managers do not articulate their organizations’ key objectives to their subordinates. In our years of consulting experience, we’ve spoken with thousands of company Presidents and Senior Managers about what’s required for them to succeed. Most can quickly identify four or five events that must happen in order for their plans to succeed. What is surprising, though, is that this critical knowledge is usually not shared with the rest of the company or even their direct reports. Why this phenomenon is so pervasive is largely unknown. From what we have gathered, many managers assume that their employees somehow instinctively know what their critical goals are, as part of their jobs. This leaves most of the company in the dark as to key success factors driving the business.

Therefore, it is imperative leaders identify and share the critical events of success to their employees. This must be repeated frequently and everyone in the organization must internalize the importance of these events with actionable and tangible goals and tasks associated with its achievement.

Many modern performance management systems provide goal management features that help executives communicate goals from the top, and then assign and track individual goals linked to the corporation’s main objectives.

Gather qualitative and quantitative measurements
Secondly, after the events have been identified, there must be a way to observe the frequency of occurrence. A common way to do this is to simply ask other members of the organization if they observe the person(s) performing these tasks. The person’s boss is an obvious person to ask, but it also is beneficial to ask others who work closely with the person. Most high-quality, modern Performance Review and 360 Survey tools with Goal Management features are a quick and effective way to gather this critical information.

The feedback process does not have to be complicated in order to provide useful, actionable data. Keep rating scales simple and objective when creating surveys and reviews. This ensures that there is no confusion regarding the performance. The typical 10 point rating scale is likely to create confusion (what is the difference between a 6 and a 7, anyway?). However, a three point rating scale on a performance review is direct and to the point (1. Below Expectation, 2. Meets Expectations, 3. Exceeds Expectations)

Keep on track with regular, honest feedback
After gathering data on an individual's or group's performance, you must ensure they receive prompt feedback regarding the results of surveys or reviews. The vast majority of employees want to do a good job and want to be told how they are doing. Feedback should focus upon the occurrence of critical events and the frequency of the occurrence.

Most importantly, do not lie about performance! We consistently observe managers avoid telling an employee that he or she is failing when in fact they are, and vice versa. Every time a manager shirks the responsibility of a hard conversation with a failing employee or an encouraging one with a successful employee, the company drifts astray from its goals. The truth about poor (or exceptional) performance is the person’s best chance at improvement (or continued success).

Provide meaningful consequences based on results
Finally, reward the people who are moving your company forward. Give them more responsibility, more people to manage, and more money. Conversely, either remove or reposition those who are not succeeding in their current roles. Research suggests that a large percentage of the workforce is in the wrong job; that probably includes some of your people. If a person is failing, tell them, tell them what they must do to improve and continue to give them feedback whether it is positive or negative. Do not allow someone who is failing to remain in their role, by doing so you are communicating that you are really not serious about performance and the success of the company.

EchoSpan is one of the fastest growing and most valued Web-based performance management services providers on the market. Through our comprehensive suite of online tools, we provide an unprecedented level of insight into companies’ human resource and goal-management activities. Currently, EchoSpan’ suite of tools includes 360 feedback, performance reviews, total goal management and employee surveys. All of our tools share a common platform, which means data is easily exchanged between each module. This provides managers complete access to employee and company performance metrics from a single Web-based dashboard.