There are 7 actions a leader can take to foster accountability. However, to be able to hold our teams accountable, there is a foundation we need to set first. Lencioni’s popular model which moves dysfunctional teams to cohesive teams, builds as you move up the pyramid. Each layer needs to be in place for the next layer to be possible to succeed.
- Building Trust is essential to have a team that feels “safe” in the workplace without fear of repercussions for speaking out, being vulnerable, and sharing the truth
- Mastering Conflict ensures that the team is able to have difficult conversations, discuss issues, and achieve resolution – which only happens when we have trust
- Achieving Commitment requires individuals to trust one another, and have difficult debates on expected commitments so that they can weigh in to buy in
- Embracing Accountability is then a natural step in the process when we have the first three behaviors in place
- Results, the final step, and the ultimate goal
For accountability to occur, leaders need to set the pace. Accountability requires clearly defined expectations, roles, and responsibilities. It is difficult to be accountable when we are unclear about what we are to achieve. Too often this key step is overlooked, and employees struggle to meet their leaders’ expectations. Once these are in place, we need to inspect what we expect. Setting an expectation and rarely discussing or observing the result, will create confusion and missed understanding that this must not be that important when other tasks take leadership priority of focus and concern.
7 Actions a Leader Can Take to Foster Accountability:
- Share the roles and responsibilities of the team
- Accept responsibility when things go wrong
- Give credit for success when due
- Foster team accountability – work together to achieve success
- Demonstrate company values – use these as a touchstone for actions taken
- Ensure alignment with your leadership peers
- Provide frequent and consistent feedback
Psychological safety and accountability fit into the behaviors of a cohesive team when individuals can speak up without fear of being punished or humiliated. Gallup research tells us that 72% of employees feel they can’t speak their truth in the workplace, despite taking pride in being associated with the organization. When employees consider speaking up, they are doing the mental math to determine, review and consider, what has happened in the past – tried that before, leads to more problems, repercussions, humiliation, consider a complainer – this is enough to stop an employee from speaking up. This creates a culture of silence.
There are many examples in history of when this has happened, and likely the most well-known is Space Shuttle Challenger in 1996 when several engineers were concerned about the O rings not sealing in lower temperatures at lift-off – they spoke up, were overruled by their managers, and the rest is a sad piece of history.
Eliminate that culture of silence. Begin with building trust and work your way up the model to ensure organizational health and accountability are in place. Make the mental math easy to know, action works.
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