Do you struggle with accountability in your organization? Many of my clients want to improve accountability by don’t know where to start. To me, accountability means taking responsibility for your actions, behaviors, performance and decisions at work. I like the quote “Accountability is the glue that ties commitment to the results.” by Bob Proctor best known for his NY Times best-selling book You Were Born Rich and contributor to the film The Secret.

The problem is when there’s no accountability, deadlines are missed, there’s no sense of urgency, and unfinished or poor-quality work becomes the norm. I have a client who wanted to improve accountability because employees regularly missed deadlines or produced substandard work. These employees always had excuses and the client let them pass. Besides the obvious problem, the client ended up picking up the slack which took him away from more important activities like working with customers and building his business. He tried to suggest changes to how to work more productively but with no system in place, there was little improvement, leaving him frustrated.

Steps to Implement an Accountability System

We developed and implemented the following system to improve accountability:

1) First, he had to provide a good example to his team including living up to his commitments, focusing on results, not making excuses and taking responsibility for his own actions. He needed to model the right behavior first.

2) Clearly define his expectations for accountability by being specific and objective. This included adding these to every job description, so everyone knew what they were accountable for in their job.

3) Develop SMART goals for every employee that were aligned with his overall business goals.

4) Create a scorecard with key performance indicators (KPIs) to track progress. Every employee in the organization had a number to track their performance, even at the lowest level in the company, such as the shipping clerk with on-time shipments and the customer service rep with customer satisfaction.

5) Implement regularly scheduled coaching sessions for every employee with their manager to discuss performance. These should be honest conversations about issues and solutions to fix problems. The employee is expected to actively participate in these meetings and take ownership in solving their problems.

These steps started to improve performance and create a culture of accountability within the organization. Things didn’t change overnight but it became clear to my client which employees embraced accountability and which didn’t. Ultimately, the business results improved and the client spent more time working on the activities that were important to growing the company.

Do you have accountability issues in your organization? What steps are you taking to improve?