Richard Pierce Thomas

Leadership and Small Business Consultant

A theme that seems to be surfacing with increasing regularity is that of accountability, or lack thereof, in organizations.             

I wrote about this subject in last July’s Slippery Rock Gazette (Accountability Begins With Culture) from a broad point of view of where accountability comes from at an organizational level. Given the relevance of the topic these days, I’m going to take another swipe at it from a more individual level. 

Formalities and process aside, when you get right down to it, accountability is a difficult state to achieve. The reasons are many, however the most prevalent cause is the inability for many leaders to hear what they don’t want to hear. Ironically, this often times includes the very thing they are railing about – the lack of accountability! This is not surprising though, because in a relational sense with employees, accountability is a circular reference. You cannot expect it in someone else without offering it. Thus, before one can do anything about accountability with others, one must look first in the mirror and ask the question, “how am I contributing to the lack of accountability on my team?”

But this gets at the root of the issue. Many leaders are not prepared to hear the feedback. This is the most confounding aspect from a coaching point of view because a vital part of leadership is ongoing learning and development. We can’t get better at what we are doing if we don’t hear about our blind spots and oversights. Interestingly enough, when I hear of an accountability issue among personnel, there is usually an underlying issue with ongoing conflict. The two go hand in hand as the inability to have a healthy exchange of feedback between people leads to unmet needs and frustration – ergo, conflict!

The promise in this, however, is when you begin to address one, you can’t help but address the other. In other words, if you truly desire accountability among your team and you open yourself to feedback, you have also taken a key step in managing conflict in a healthy way. All of this falls into the realm of what I call high performance conversations. Accountability is a result, not an objective, hence the focus needs to be on the conversations. Admittedly, this doesn’t make it any easier for many, so the following is a framework you can use to begin having effective high-performance conversations with your team:

  1. Create an atmosphere of trust – The first thing to reconcile is whether trust exists among the team. You can’t expect people to get to accountability without it. The best way to assess trust is through a third party survey. There are many ways to accomplish this depending on the resources in your area. Many HR outsourcing firms will offer this as a service. If you find there is a trust gap, then you must repair that first (trust is a separate topic that I will cover in a future article).
  2. Decide you are willing to hear the feedback – It may sound simple but it is not easy to do. If you are truly willing, then you will commit to hearing what you may not want to hear.
  3. Ensure the integrity in the process – Reassure everyone involved that the feedback will be listened to and there will not be repercussions. This gets back to the trust issue, but it is vitally important to the process to ensure there is integrity in it.
  4. Offer feedback – Integrity in the process also means there is quid-pro-quo. Not to get back at someone, or a tit-for-tat, but offering true performance feedback whether it be positive, critical or somewhere in between.
  5. Lastly, ask for help – If this is new to you, then get someone involved who can help mentor the process. Executive coaches, business consultants and HR professionals can be good resources for facilitating these conversations. However you find it, get help to make sure you have a productive start.

As with many things in business these days, what got us here isn’t going to get us there. If accountability is lacking, take a hard look in the mirror and commit to doing something different to change the outcome.

Rick Thomas is a Principal and Director of Human Capital at Pilot Wealth Management, a registered investment advisor in Oregon state. Leading their focus on the human component of building wealth, he consults and speaks to organizations across the country, focusing on individual and organizational achievement.