3 Reasons Accountability Doesn't Have to Be a Dirty Word

Organizations have their comfort zones just like people and teams. Quite frankly, many leadership teams & employees give the eye roll when you bring up the word Accountability as if you have offended them in some way. In my travels, working with leadership teams, I’ve found three reasons why accountability doesn’t have to be a dirty word.

1. Everybody Agrees to it:

So many times, leaders put an accountability program in place without the buy-in from those who will be held to the standards that leadership develops. This rarely works, you have to facilitate the discussion and get everyone on board and agreeing to what they will be held accountable to.

2. Key Performance Indicators:

What gets measured, typically gets done. I once heard someone say when it comes to behaviors that drive results, be boring. When we put together the critical behaviors that everyone will be held accountable to they should be SMART; Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Results, Time.

3. Accountability provides coachable moments:

With Key Performance Indicators and Accountability in place, we have an opportunity to create coachable moments. When we hold ourselves and our team to a standard, we start to get a transparent view of where our inefficiencies lie, and it provides the platform to learn a more effective way of completing tasks and goals. Creating a culture that embraces coachable moments is no easy task, and everyone on the team needs to understand that it doesn’t define them as a person, but is an opportunity for them to grow in their role inside the organization.

Accountability doesn’t have to be a dirty word; it simply needs to be a clear, well understood future commitment between leadership and employees that drive growth through transparency.