When we hire people, they’re given responsibilities that they must fulfill. Unfortunately, a lot of the time, people tend to shirk from their responsibilities. How can you get people to fulfill their commitments without bringing negativity to the picture? Building a culture of accountability is one of the best ways to ensure your employees keep their part of the bargain. Here are some ways to promote accountability at your workplace.
1. Be Clear About Expectations
One of the first steps towards building an accountability culture is to have clearly defined goals. These include overall organizational goals and each individual employee's goals. Make sure each employee knows what’s expected of them. All workflow processes and hierarchies should be clear. This should ideally happen on the first day of work and be kept updated as things progress.
2. Have Methods to Measure
Once everyone knows exactly what’s expected of them, managers must help break down those goals into measurable steps. There should be some clear metrics that let the employee know they’re going about things the right way. These measures should be evaluated quarterly or biannually, depending on the type of work they do. Top executives can talk about the impact of each role in meeting targets.
3. Walk the Talk
Every office culture is set by the people at the top. How your senior-level management behaves is what the employees are going to follow. Creating an accountability culture starts at the top too. Admit mistakes when applicable. Share success stories not merely as brags but as detailed examples to learn from. Talk about the challenges faced and how to overcome those so others are inspired.
4. Give Feedback
Some employees might meet your expectations right away, while others will require further guidance to do a good job. Take note of how the employee is performing and whether they’re being accountable about both their successes and failures. Provide a progress update in a positive manner that encourages the employee to be more responsible. Celebrate the areas where they met their goals.
5. Provide Coaching
Some employees might have never been part of an accountability culture before. Therefore, many managers can benefit from holding coaching sessions that teach employees to be more responsible. They can also be taught critical skills like problem solving, taking initiative, how to grow from failures, etc. All of these together can make the sort of employee that takes accountability.
6. Focus on Growth
For many employees, a job must have learning and growth to hold any interest. Once they’ve mastered something, they can start to get laidback and unmotivated. Getting new challenges is one way to hone new skills. Have a developmental plan for employees, which can help them to keep learning and growing at their job. Not only are motivated employees more accountable, they’ll also stay on for longer.
7. Mutual Accountability
To create a true accountability culture, employees should be accountable to each other as well. This also helps individuals remember that they’re part of a team and an organizational whole. Otherwise, it’s easy for teams or individuals to create a private world where they hide, hinder, and delay things for others. Being part of a bigger organization is something executives should keep reminding employees.
8. Some Talk, Some Action
One of the ways to promote accountability in your workplace is to set some rules. You can’t have a set of goals and no consequence of not meeting them. If employees realize that not being responsible for their work doesn’t come with any drawbacks, they’ll simply shirk it. Poor performance reviews, increments, bonuses, etc. can show an employee that not being accountable is going to cost them.
9. Be Open to Feedback
Not all systems are set-up perfectly the first time around. If this is your first attempt at creating an accountability culture at work, you might not get everything right from the word go. Create an open-door environment where employees can talk about challenges they face with the system without fearing any repercussion. This includes talking with managers and senior-level executives.
10. Know the Practical Side of Things
Textbook accountability culture will differ from what it looks like once it’s put into practice. Each organization is different, so their cultures are diverse too. Sometimes you can involve your employees in goal-settings. Sometimes you can create a system that requires frequent communication with colleagues. Knowing what accountability looks like in practice in your organization will help you get the best results.
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