The Catalyst #22: Create A Culture of Accountability In Your Teams
...because accountability breeds response-ability
In This Edition
When individuals take responsibility for their actions, they become more capable of responding to challenges & opportunities.
In other words, this means being prepared to handle any situation & adapt to changing circumstances.
While there may not be any direct statistic to show a relationship between accountability & project success or failure, accountability definitely has a role to play in project outcomes.
The below statistic underscores the critical role of accountability in achieving project success.
As per one of the reports, only 2.5% of companies successfully complete 100% of their project.
Accountability within project teams significantly influences project outcomes.
Is the team responsible for their actions?
Are individuals accountable for their work?
Do the individuals deliver when assigned a responsibility?
Do they willingly seek responsibility?
An answer to all these questions is a resounding YES when you create a culture of accountability in your project teams.
How To Create A Culture of Accountability in your teams?
Creating a culture of accountability is essential & helpful for any organization & on a project.
Here's how one can accomplish this -
Each individual must be well aware of
Vague or unclear roles & responsibilities dilute accountability thereby causing hindrance in creating a culture for one.
2. Clear Goals
Ensure to have SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic & Time bound)
Take it a step further.
Have SMARTER goals (add Evaluated & Revised to the SMART goals)
Having clear goals, encourages individuals to take up responsibility & to own the outcomes.
Unclear goals, will make them hesitant in doing so.
3. Encourage Open Communication
Open communication fosters exchange of ideas & concerns freely.
It makes individuals feel involved & supported.
This in turn helps them take ownership of the tasks & outcomes.
4. Empower Teams of Individuals
Autonomy often brings the best out of individuals.
Micromanaging can be damaging to those who look upon it as lack of trust or being non-confident about their abilities.
Independent working helps individuals explore options to arrive at a solution & feel more confident when reaching or devising solutions
5. Appreciate & Applaud
Rewards & recognition can sow seeds of creating a culture of accountability.
Individuals are more inclined to take up more responsibilities & the accountability for their tasks or outcomes, when they feel recognized &/or rewarded for their involvement & achievements.
6. Unbiased Approach
Accountability is not just for the teams. It is for everyone in the organization.
Encouraging unbiased approach to accountability within the organization can set it as a practice to be followed thereby creating a culture of accountability.
This should involve not just the project teams but also everyone in the leadership & to the top.
7. Lead By Example
As a project manager or a leader, we are often look up to as role models for setting up acceptable & desirable behaviors.
Its an opportunity for all of us to lead by example & practice what we preach.
Lack of accountability on your side will seep through to your teams & spread organization wide.
You, holding the torch high by demonstrating accountability will make others look up to & practice it.
8. Continuous Reinforcement
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Creating a culture of accountability is not just a one time activity.
It is an ongoing process that needs to be re-assessed, re-informed, re-enforced & re-iterate time & again.
Many organizations initiate this process but leave it half way, expecting individuals to remember & continue doing it without actually reinforcing it.
9. Foster Trust
Trust is the foundation of all big things including successful organizations, deep relationships, autonomous working etc.
Fostering trust in the capabilities of individuals helps them feel motivated in taking up responsibilities & accountability for the outcomes.
This is the definitely a foundation for creating a culture of accountability.
10. Encourage Continuous Learning
Continuous learning embeds the willingness to learn & grow which helps individuals to perform better over time.
They feel challenged, they feel engaged & they feel motivated to take up new tasks that would help them grow as well as be more confident in the process.
This in turn results in them being more responsible in their approach (in both personal & professional lives) as well as the way they hold themselves accountable for the results.
This ensures the culture of accountability thrives.
Job Search Tip For This Week
You got 60 seconds to pitch your idea & if you do it great, you win a chance to proceed to the next round.
Think of this as a MINUTE to WIN IT challenge.
Sketch your 60 seconds to fame.
Here's how you can do it as a job seeker -
Now the most important part - DO IT IN ONE SENTENCE, EACH.
For e.g.
Hi My name is <your name> & I am currently a <your designation> at <your company name>.
I have experience with <key highlights of your experience>
I aspire to be <your aspiration>
<this is how you will benefit from me>
Let's take a complete script as an example (you can & should have your own script)
Hi, my name is AB and I am currently a Project Manager at XYZ.
I have experience managing complex projects of budget over $10M & scaling multiple start ups 3x in less than 12 months each.
I aspire to help businesses scale efficiently without losing sanity in the process.
My extensive experience in leading cross functional teams while scaling up start ups, will be an advantage to your company to scale things faster & efficiently.
This is called as Elevator pitch. I like to call it your "Sales Pitch".
Do it right & see the results for yourself.
Next? Practice it. The more you practice, the more it will come out naturally.
Pro-Tip: Research the company well to fill in your last line of the pitch to align your experience with what the company does
Mission 2025 - Call for Action
This 2025 & thereafter, I am on a mission to build systems for businesses & fellow project managers to help build confident teams & deliver quality projects, stress free.
Want to run your projects better & make your teams love working on them?
DM me to discuss about how I can help your projects, teams & businesses do better.
If you are a decision maker & if my mission rings bell with your thoughts & interests or aligns with your vision for sustainable project delivery, you can contribute to my mission in the following ways - (DM me to discuss more about these)
If you are a content creator wanting to feature in The Catalyst, feel free to reach out & we can work this out for FREE.
Why would you want this?
Finally, if you are a job seeker in the current market, you don't have to do it all alone.
Grab set of valuable resources for FREE to help yourselves with including ATS compliant resume, understanding ATS & revising resume, interviews & overcoming rejections by visiting my topmate page - https://topmate.io/rahul_pai
Reach out to me for paid services around resume review, resume revamp, brand building, skill development & PMP.
If you still have questions or need more information, feel free to book a call & we can work out a strategy that will deliver results.
2025 is going to be different but only if you ain't the same as your were before 2025.
Are you ready?
I help hungry managers build high-performance teams.
1 个月In vision of management, accountabilty is central. Nothing else you do matters if you do not have accountability. When I understood this it changed everything for me as a manager. Thank you for sharing, Rahul. ????