What’s your definition of accountability?
We often think of it as something done by someone to another person. Even our language suggests that it’s a one-way street: “I’m going to hold you accountable for…”
I wrote a blog post on that topic in January 2024. In that piece, I commented on the pitfalls of believing it’s the leader’s responsibility to hold their people accountable. Instead, I proposed that accountability might be framed as a mutual set of responsibilities that are established by setting clear expectations & shared agreements up front. When agreements are broken (which is where accountability can get challenging), the parties explore and adjust without blame.
In my post, I wondered whether that notion might be too “pie in the sky” based on conversations with clients who manage significant performance issues.
I am reluctantly concluding that it may, in fact, be unrealistic.
At the same time, I’m not ready to give up the belief that it’s possible to create a culture of self-accountability in a team or organization. Possible but not necessarily easy or immediate.
One starting place is to pay more attention to recruiting and hiring people with a track record of self-responsibility. But that’s not always the easiest thing to do especially when there is a limited pool of applicants.
For today, let’s focus on what you can do with your existing people.
One of my clients* is experimenting with an approach to strengthening self-accountability that seems promising. She wrote me this description of their plans:
As part of the 2025 focus on growth and empowerment with the Leadership team I supervise, I have decided to focus on some areas to grow knowledge and create discussion with our team. The team was provided with 8 different suggestions of ways to instill self-accountability in the workplace. They shared their top 3 and we chose the 3 with the most votes as a place to begin. The topic with the most votes was Model Accountability at Leadership Levels.
I created an overview PowerPoint to review some of the main points with the team. The overview will guide dialogue and deeper understanding of what being an accountable leader looks like, the importance of it, some potential outcomes, ways to demonstrate and maintain accountability, and some areas we as a team hope to commit to as methods of keeping our team accountable.
Here's the list of the eight ways shared with Candace. Please feel free to apply any of these suggestions to your own accountability challenges and share your learning. Candace has also graciously shared her slides. Click here to access it.
Encouraging a growth mindset along with promoting regular performance feedback can also go a long way toward creating a climate where self-accountability is the norm. Having a growth mindset can reduce the threat of receiving performance feedback because it focuses on improving over proving one’s skills. And regular performance feedback that’s well received can increase self-awareness and close gaps in self-accountability. A powerful virtuous cycle!
I’m looking forward to learning what Candace and her team can accomplish. I’ll let you know what I find out. Meanwhile, please experiment with any of the ideas that seem valuable in your situation.
*Candace Pronovost, Residential Director for The Consortium, a non-profit organization in Western Massachusetts.