"You're rubbish at that." "Yeh, but it's not my fault."

Accountability at Work

The other day I was visiting a client’s office and sat in a waiting area near the kitchen.  As I waited I could hear people talking and one conversation went something like this:

“There’s no point him having a go at me, it wasn’t my fault we missed a deadline.”

“I know, he had a go at me too.  I didn’t know there was a problem with the client, it’s not my job to know everything.”

“Exactly, I’ve a good mind to speak to his boss, but he won’t do anything anyway.”

Both these people spent their break pointing the finger and blaming others.  Do you hear this in your office?

My client didn’t ask me to help him with accountability, I was there to work out why his staff were leaving in their droves and help him cut their recruitment bill.  But it would seem that accountability could be an underlying factor.

Accountability is one of those words that people know exists, but they don’t really give it much thought.  This can be an expensive mistake as it’s one of the foundations of trust, support and healthy relationships both internally and with clients.

When we take responsibility for our work and our actions; when we make mistakes, admit to them quickly, learn and move one; and when we are motivated to do our own job plus help others when needed, we become more efficient, effective and a lot happier.

Can you imagine the whole workforce being like this?  An army of totally accountable people, taking responsibility for the success of the whole company and putting the client’s needs before anything?

You may think this is unattainable, but you would be wrong.  There are companies out there who feed a culture of accountability and they reap enormous rewards.

Ask yourself this.  Do your staff avoid certain people, bad news or poor results?  Do they spend time blaming and judging other people’s performance?  Are they territorial about their job and hate change?

If the answer is yes, then your workforce has low accountability, which is a bad attitude.  If you want to change that it has to come from the top.  There has to be 100% commitment to make a change.  We do this by recognising and praising the successful steps our people take by telling them in front of the team in an inclusive manner.  We do this by encouraging people to ask for help before things go badly wrong.   And we do this by helping people take ownership of their job whatever the results. 

Of course, expectations have to be realistic and agreed by all parties, plus revisited on a regular basis to adapt to any changes and adjust accordingly.  There are also other techniques that will help, but for the time being there is enough information here to turn a culture of low accountability into high accountability. 

If however, there are some who still persist in a bad attitude perhaps it’s better for all concerned if they are encouraged to leave within the parameters of legal requirements and help finding more suitable work.

A highly accountable workforce is in control, yields fantastic results with greater productivity and far less stress.  It’s a win win for everyone.