In today’s dynamic business landscape, success demands you to have more than a talented workforce. It requires building a culture that boosts accountability, ownership, and responsibility. An accountable and engaged team is high-performing and capable of meeting all challenges.
Consider this example. As a ship’s captain, you have the ownership. You decide the direction in which you want to steer it to navigate through obstacles. But when you encounter trouble, accountability is having a life raft, and responsibility is distributing them to prevent people from sinking and getting you back on track.
Thus, ownership, accountability, and responsibility are core values within an organisation for building trust and collaboration.
What is A Culture of Accountability?
In the corporate world, a culture of accountability means appreciating every employee’s contribution to the organisation’s success and, in turn, every employee doing their share. It encourages employees to take ownership of their duties and be responsible for completion.
The Relationship Between Responsibility and Accountability
Before building a culture of accountability, organisations must understand its meaning. Many consider accountability and responsibility to be synonymous. While they belong to the same family, there is a difference.
Accountability is results-driven and carries a sense of ownership over the results. Responsibility, on the other hand, relates to an employee’s actions focused on task completion.
In other words, accountability is result-oriented, whereas responsibility is task-based. An employee can have ownership of a project, the responsibility to complete its tasks, and accountability for the results. But an employee can also be responsible yet not accountable, and vice versa.
Building accountability is crucial for fostering a culture of personal development and continuous improvement. Let’s discover the importance of accountability and why you should focus on building it at every level of the organisation.
How is Building a Culture of Accountability Beneficial?
Employees are more involved when they don’t just have ownership of completing the tasks but are also accountable for the results. Their focus on the outcome is much more, which results in improved performance. In a culture of accountability, the most common benefits include:
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When everyone knows their role, no one assumes “someone else is doing it.” Thus, there is timely completion of all tasks with fewer slips.
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Employees think more creatively, which enhances their problem-solving skills and boosts innovation.
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When employees are individually accountable, the chances of taking ownership of mistakes or hiccups are much higher, thereby reducing conflict. Employees also learn more in the process since they don’t shift blame elsewhere.
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The culture of accountability leads to improved performance, which helps employees learn new skills, gain confidence, and foster a growth mindset.
Steps to Build a Culture of Accountability
Consistency, patience, and a shift in the thinking pattern of the organisation’s leadership are required to build a culture of accountability. This cannot be achieved overnight and needs time. Here are the steps you must follow to establish a culture of accountability successfully.
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Ensure every employee knows how their work contributes to the organisation’s success. Align their responsibilities directly with the organisation’s strategic imperatives. When employees know their actions are crucial to the organisation’s success, they are more likely to adopt personal accountability.
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Personal accountability can also be built by setting performance goals with employees. Make sure you also set individual learning and development goals. Giving employees appropriate learning and development opportunities instils a sense of accountability amongst employees to benefit from those opportunities. Many organisations focus on results-based learning to create measurable change individually and at the organisational level.
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Inform everyone about who is responsible and accountable for every task and set clear expectations. Use a chart to lay out the responsibilities.
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The fear of failure makes employees reluctant to take on responsibility and accountability. There are also chances of hiding mistakes or finger-pointing. Remember to foster a sense of stability and safety and treat failure with grace.
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Make sure employees have the resources required to achieve goals. Do not set unrealistic timelines. Employees hate it when they are held accountable for something not in their control.
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Have a robust feedback mechanism. A culture of accountability requires candid and regular employee feedback. Talk about concerns, challenges, successes, and suggestions. Feedback works both ways. When you provide feedback, ask employees for suggestions on improving organisational processes.
Conclusion
Building a culture of accountability necessitates the development of lasting personal accountability throughout all levels of an organisation. You will have to spend time and effort, as well as some trial and error, to increase accountability. However, once it’s done, it will lead to improved employee performance and engagement and, eventually, the organisation’s success.
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