Nearly 50% of Upper-Level Managers Avoid Holding People Accountable
46% of upper-level managers are rated “too little” on the item, “Holds people accountable … .” (HBR)
You missed the point if accountability is:
- Coercing reluctance to do things it isn’t committed to do.
- Expecting performance from weakness. Accountability won’t help squirrels lay eggs.
- Punishment.
Accountability:
- Says we are responsible to each other.
- Expresses commitment. Those who aren’t willing to be accountable haven’t committed.
- Defines dependability. What’s more insulting than one unprepared person on a team filled with talent?
- Demonstrates confidence and self-respect.
- Sets the ground rules for respect and trust.
Accountability recognizes strength and honors performance.
Mutual accountability:
I’ve never been asked to lead a workshop on how to hold ourselves accountable. It’s always about others. That is the heart of the problem.
Accountability is something to work on together, not mandate from on high.
One-sided accountability:
- Leverages fear.
- Depends on carrots and sticks.
- Promotes disconnection and arrogance. Relationships disintegrate when leaders stand aloof.
- Invites resentment and disengagement.
- Dis-empowers those who need to feel powerful.
Mutual accountability:
- Requires leaders to go first.
- Demands respect-based interactions.
- Strengthens connection and relationship. We are responsible to help the people around us succeed.
- Honors integrity and courage.
- Gives opportunity for humility.
Jim Whitehurst, CEO of Red Hat, said, “Go into every interaction with those who work for you believing that you are as accountable to them for your performance as they are to you for their performance.”, and author of, “The Open Organization.”
Jim on leadership accountability:
Practice accountability:
Blurry responsibility leads to vague accountability. Vague accountability is no accountability.
- Who owns the project or initiative?
- Who makes decisions? The group. A project leader. Someone who isn’t in the room.
- What are the deliverables?
- What are the milestones and deadlines?
- What happens when deadlines are missed?
Complexity is like fog to accountability.
What might mutual accountability look like in your organization?
How might leaders lift accountability out of the category of punishment?
It can be one of the more challenging aspects of leadership. Getting people to commit and do what you need them to, when there are many priorities and different personalities involved. Some people just aren’t motivated to meet your deadlines or even commit to a well laid out plan. Others, naturally are just motivated and have good work ethic and get things done without too much effort. I guess you just have to set the expectations clearly, and follow up when you say you will.
Thanks Random… “I guess you just have to …. follow up when you say you will.” That’s important.
You’re description of the challenge explains some of the main functions of leadership. How do you inspire, challenge, and support a team of diverse people?
You have to take an individual approach to each one. I learned this years ago. There is no one size fits all approach to people. Some react badly when challenged, others need a lot of support, and some just seem to have chips on their shoulders. Such is the challenge of leadership.
Homerun! Thank you
Thanks Chad!
It seems that many people have “grown up” with the notion that accountability is ONLY something that happens at the END of a project or process. I have found that if the leader can instill in themselves and the group/team that accountability is the cord that runs through the project and any time there is unexpected movement/change in speed of the cord, then that should be recognized by any/all team members and brought to the team’s attention. This recognition is of both the project/process moving too slowly or more rapidly than expected. The first should cause a meeting to understand what caused the slowness and the 2nd to celebrate the speed (presuming quality remains).
A great and one of the toughest topics for life and for people working together! Thanks for tackling it!
Thanks Frank. Your comment makes me think of a culture of accountability, rather than accountability as an event.
I think we’re afraid of a culture of accountability because the term is heavily associated with punishment. Why should delivering on our commitments, learning from success and failure, and adapting as you go be considered punishment?
Complexity is like fog to accountability? I have always been a planer, a fixer. The more organized (detailed) my plan is the more likely the employees will understand the goal and their roles in the project. Or so I thought… maybe I need to give less??
And to quantify on how this applies to accountability, as a leader I set the goals and lay out projects. If those who do the projects do not understand what those goals are or their role then I as the leader have failed and should hold myself accountable not the team.
Thanks Walt. It seem like the approach you suggest is close to the approach the CEO of Redhat explains.
Complexity is geometrically proportionate to accountability … the more complex (the project OR program, which need to be managed differently, tho few can make that distinction) the more the necessity for MUTUAL accountability.
Thanks Rurbane. As complexity goes up so should the mutual side of accountability.
The first step in mutual accountability is a mutual conmitment to a “trust but verify” agreement …
anyone who can’t tolerate query for (sharing) material and relevant details
(in both directions … up&down the command chain, and across functional control “silos”)
cannot to be trusted to be accountable,
whether in process or after results.
Politics included, refusal/denial of concise, precise, & accurate statuses (for whatever reasonable or special excuse) is a clear flag that accountability is being evaded.
And a clear roadsign, “Trouble Ahead.”
Brilliant Rurbane. If you can’t talk about it, accountability is a fantasy. Or, I suppose it’s one directional.
Once again candor rises to the top.
What might mutual accountability look like in your organization?
The needs to be a statement document soall site understand, gray areas need to be Black & White.
How might leaders lift accountability out of the category of punishment?
Consider the Accountable action as Teaching/Mentoring, sooner or later punishments needs to be addressed or the ship willsink!
Thanks Tim. So practical! Your idea of moving gray to black and white is powerful. Any time we feel confused or unclear we need to dig into it.
A dictionary definition of accountability is “… answerability, blameworthiness, liability…” so coercing, expecting performance and punishment would seem to fit. As long as accountability is about who carries the can, avoidance wil continue to be the norm.
Thanks Mitch. It may seem negative to use terms like answerability, blameworthy, or liability. But, how can we bring value if we aren’t willing to answer or be liable for our work.
The person who is liable has the greatest opportunity. Sadly, liability can be used like a billy club. It’s unfortunate that accountability has so many negative connotations. Glad you stopped in.
Dan, I think it’s because a common situation is “liability without authority” ; if anything goes out of spec it’s your fault, and you will carry the can, but you have no authority to change anything, apply resources, bring in people etc.
A great definition of accountability comes from the business dictionary:
“The obligation of an individual or organization to account for its activities, accept responsibility for them, and to disclose the results in a transparent manner. …”
http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/accountability.html
I like that it has three parts. 1) It starts with “to account” or measure results. This takes a lot of the negative connotation out of it. After all we don’t necessarily think of accountants as the bad guys. 2) It involves accepting responsibility for those results, and 3) doing so with an openness. This 3-part process hopefully leads to improvement.
If we can adopt Carol Dweck’s “growth mindset” versus a “fixed mindset,” accountability isn’t so scary.
Great subject Dan and 100% on the money. Mangers and leaders are mostly afraid to manage performance. For me this was easy because I always set KPIs, or KRA’s usually in a workshop setting so employees knew exactly what the expectations were (they wrote them). If performance fell below what was expected, then I would have the conversation and compare performance against communicated expectations (KPIs, KRAs). It’s hard to have the conversation if no KPIs or KRAs exist or standards have not been communicated or the employee has not been inducted or trained accordingly. Ge the first part right and the rest falls into place.
Thank you for writing about the A-word, and clarifying that it’s not powering up on people, and punishing them for not doing what they were incapable of doing, or never agreed to do for good reasons the person with the A-ray refused to hear.
I’m also glad you mentioned project plans. “What happens when deadlines are missed?”
Do you think that maybe, sometimes, the answer to the last one might be, “Hold the planner accountable for driving an unrealistic schedule?”
You can plan for me to run a six-minute mile. It’s easy…just run four 90-second quarters. You might even coerce me into agreeing to “try really hard.” Accountability is then asking to see the vomit, as proof that I Tried Really Hard.Too often, Accountability is bullying in a suit.
The more Complex (in the Cynefin Framework sense) the project, the more likely it is that the initial plan will turn out to be less than ideal, or even fall apart completely. Under these conditions, everyone ought to be accountable for sharing current, accurate information, re-plan, and re-commit. Fortunately, this is how we now run a lot more projects.
Like a lot of good things, we have to be tough on abuse of Accountability, and that’s a key senior leadership function. The good boss’ bosses I’ve served under have been pretty good at establishing a culture of realistic accountability.
It makes sense that almost half of upper level management struggles with holding their employees accountable, in my opinion holding other people accountable is one of the hardest responsibilities that a leader has to bear, and one of the most critical. While I absolutely believe this to be true for all leaders in all fields, it is especially applicable to the field and management of public health. The public health sector not only aims to provide long-lasting solutions to health issues affecting entire communities and populations, but also initiate preventive strategies for negative health outcomes. When mistakes are made in the development or implementation of such solutions or strategies, the impact will not only be felt by the other collaborating public health professionals, but also on the communities we aim to help. Holding others and ourselves accountable in this line of work is not only expected, but necessary for upholding ethical standards and overall effectiveness. Mutual accountability is particularly useful here, because the field is built upon collaboration of multiple individuals and groups, as opposed to a more traditional hierarchical structure. While having one point person for holding accountability might be quicker and easier to uphold, having the entire group working in tandem to be responsible for each other means more eyes and less likelihood that someone is singled out. Indeed, the effects of not holding each other accountable in the public health sector has considerably worse outcomes, individuals in this field are very adept at practicing this skill due to the process-based nature of the work we do. Every step of the development of programs is built on a framework of preparation and evidence-based research, tools which ensure thoroughness and completion of all objectives and deliverables. As an individual with leadership aspirations in this field, it is my intention to implement the tools you stated here as well as have the people I work with review them so that we all can be as effective at accountability as possible!