At Last, the Secret to Increasing Accountability

Do you have employees who simply refuse to take responsibility & accountability? Find out what you can do to increase employee accountability. In a recent management survey, a third of the respondents said that 30 - 50% of their employees shirk responsibility. Whether it's finger pointing & blame or employees who simply refuse to be accountable, it impacts your bottom line.

In order for performance management to be successful, you have to be able to hold others accountable. Let's look at the 6 secrets to increasing accountability in your organization.

The 1st secret, COMMUNICATE YOUR VISION occurs when you cascade goals in the first step of performance management. You can watch my episode “After the Performance Review, Now What” on this. Every employee should realize that how their performance drives the business.

The 2nd is to SET EXPECTATIONS. In “How Do I Write Performance Goals” , I explained how to set goals for which employee will be held accountable. Evaluate their progress frequently and reward their successes in performance.

MAKE SUCCESS ATTAINABLE is the 3rd secret. Part of setting SMARTER goals is to ensure they are attainable. Offer coaching and training to your staff members and provide all of the resources and information they need to meet — and exceed — your expectations.

The 4th secret is to ACCEPT A REASONABLE AMOUNT OF FAILURE. Accept that failure & mistakes are part of business - if you blow up every time things don’t go as planned, your employees will hide their mistakes because they fear your negative reaction. Ask what went wrong by saying things like “help me to understand what happened, so that we can solve the problem & make sure that this particular thing never happens again”.

Secret #5 is for you to BE A ROLE MODEL. If your employees see you making excuses and shifting blame when you fail, they will follow suit. Admit when you’re wrong, and share with your team what you have learned from your mistakes & what you will do to ensure it doesn’t happen again.

And the 6th secret is to REFRAIN FROM SOLVING THEIR PROBLEMS. When employees ask you for a solution, don’t immediately offer one. Instead, ask “What do you think you/we should do?” and don’t accept “I don’t know” as an answer.

Talk through the problem, offering feedback if they veer off track. Ultimately, make them responsible for coming up with a workable solution. The more you do that, the less inclined they’ll be to run to you every time they need to make a decision.

These 6 secrets will support you in building a culture of accountability and performance management for your organization. Please go to my website on more about performance management and accountability.