Accountability on Steroids – Part 1

Accountability on Steroids, Part I

Four Action Steps for Leaders Who Want to Begin Building Higher Levels of Personal Accountability

Cathy McCullough, M.S.

Leadership Coach, Speaker, Author | McCullough Leadership Group

4½ minute read 

I recently asked an executive how things were going for him. His response: “I’m tired; just…plain…tired. Covid, the political landscape, problem employees, figuring out this ‘remote work’ thing and now the ‘hybrid’ work thing—you name it.”

He doesn’t feel like giving up, but that doesn’t mean he’s not exhausted. Leaders have a lot on their plates right now and it’s tough to keep moving forward.

According to Katie Jones, author of Navigating Uncertainty: Leadership Accountability in Times of Crisis (https://www.visualcapitalist.com/leadership-accountability-in-times-of-crisis/), 51% of leaders have checked out. Just like the CEO noted above, they’re just tired. This CEO’s human condition simply has him feeling overwhelmed—exactly when he needs to get focused and centered on what has made, and continues to make, his organization great.

With that said, however, strategically leading people to do what you need them to do is exactly what’s needed at this very moment in time. In return…you need their commitment to do what needs to be done in the way it should be done, on time. You don’t need them to just ‘do the job.’ You need them to take ownership. You don’t need to tell them what to do; you need them to pick up the pieces and run with them. You need them to care. You need them to claim excellence and pride in a job well done. You need them to work together (vs in silos) and to create a culture of engagement. When your culture is high performing, personal accountability is the lead domino, and with that you can then focus on growing and leading your organization toward an even stronger future.

So what’s a leader to do? 

Accountability on Steriods: Where To Begin…

Now more than ever, building personal accountability to an even higher level is a leadership muscle that needs exercising. Your organization needs see this moment in time as the perfect opportunity to build and/or strengthen personal accountability vs. running from it. So how do you do that in such uncertain times?

With full or partial remote work as the new normal, you need personal accountability running rampant throughout your organization. The recent pandemic has thrust upon business leaders the realities of remote teams, business disruption, lost clients/customers, frightened consumers, new business models, stressed parents…it’s a lot to navigate. However, instead of pulling back from the harder aspects of your job as a leader or force-feeding your strategic endeavors, now is the perfect opportunity to re-energize your people and your business. While this will require effort, it’s never a waste of time to strengthen the foundation of how your company goes about its work. 

Accountability on Steriods: A Few First Steps…(because it’s a journey…)

There’s a lot to do to create a vibrant, yet accountable, workforce. To expedite things, here are a few first steps for revisiting what might be lost and/or for getting started on building the right kind of personal accountability.

(1) Understand Uncertainty vs Predictability. It’s imperative that you, as a leader, understand a little bit of human psychology. 

There’s simply no way you can do a google search to find the answers you want to find about what will happen next. You and your people are (as a reminder) human, and humans like predictability, and in the human mind ‘uncertainty’ just doesn’t line up with ‘predictability.’ We can see evidence of this in a 2016 study* (as just one example) which demonstrates that participants who knew there was a 50% chance they would receive a shock were more stressed than those who knew that they would definitely be receiving a shock. It wasn’t the possibility of a shock that caused the stress—it was the uncertainty of not knowing. As uncomfortable as receiving a shock might be, those who were told they would, with 100% predictability, be receiving a shock simply knew it was coming—and they weren’t as stressed as those who were told they ‘may or may not’ get a shock.

Today’s landscape is covered in uncertainty—about jobs, schooling, changing business models, health, finances, the social fabric locally and nationally, and more.

Right now: (1) Your people want leadership. (2) As a leader, you don’t want to be exhausted. The win-win here is predictability. 

Therefore, building accountability is a habit that can help you stake your claim in what it means to be a successful, healthy, and growing organization. Accountability gives definition, it gives parameters, it gives your people a framework within which they can do their work. In short, it gives a sense of predictability. People know what’s expected of them. 

(2) Define Outcomes. Accountability isn’t micro-management. Personal accountability is built by leaders defining outcomes and then stepping away – giving the distance needed for people to breathe and do the work you’ve asked them to do. Share with your people why the outcome of what they’re being asked to do is important. How does it link to what this company produces? How does it link to customer satisfaction? What difference does it all make? Take the guesswork out of the equation. Define outcomes, then walk away and let people do what they do best.

(3) Create Meaningful Conversations. Taking the time to talk to your people upfront is a crucial step in building a culture where personal accountability rules. Together, talk about and define very clear expectations, boundaries, timelines, resources, etc. In the process, you will also get to know your people as human beings.

In addition, talk about what ‘success’ looks like. Accountability isn’t ‘checking off’ a task. Accountability means that ‘success’ was reached, but rarely is ‘success’ defined. I encourage my clients to avoid having a ‘due date’ as the success criteria. (People can produce most anything by a due date, but that doesn’t mean what they produce is any good.) So be very specific: What, exactly, does success look like? Co-create success, and your people will gravitate toward excellence far faster than if you ‘tell’ them what success looks like. So don’t tell them; talk to them. (And yes: This takes a bit of time upfront, but it’s like the stock market: You’ll put in more time and effort upfront but you’ll reap the rewards down the road.)

(4) Keep Showing Up! Give a sense of order to the chaos we’re all in right now. Create routines for continuing for connect with your people. Is that once per week? Twice per month? Create space for conversations around what’s going well and what’s not going well. Is everything on-track? If not, where is something stuck? What are some ideas for getting things moving forward again? Validate and share successes, then foster a learning environment by sharing thoughts and ideas about how to break-through roadblocks and obstacles. Problem-solve with your people, not for your people. Encourage the team to collectively suggest solutions and ideas, too. In short, don’t delegate and walk away. Be around, be visible. You build accountability by making sure you’re visible in the right way.

Keep Moving Forward… 

Accountability is a way of being. It’s a way of engaging in work that matters. It’s a way of building excellence and avoiding mediocrity, and it all begins with leaders holding themselves accountable. Therefore:

• Which of the above do you need to do more of? Less of?
• What do you tend to neglect?
• What will you begin to do differently within a week of reading this blog?