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Empowerment and accountability are critical components in company culture. Accountability is an overused word and is almost a buzzword in any company but is surprisingly an underutilized one as a concept. As leaders, it is our responsibility to instill this concept in the organisation. We call for a team meeting and preach to the team members about the importance of taking responsibility. But it is not going to be that easy. We still see instances of blaming and pointing fingers. What most usually do is try to re-enforce it again by conducting another meeting and talk to the team about accountability. It is a painful cycle with you hoping that it will work the second or third time around.

Repeating the process until you get it right can work but it will cost you time – time that you may not have. A better way of doing things is to get to the root of it. Identify what the problem is and not just tell the team that they are not achieving the desired results. It’s obvious and not constructive. You need to tell them why they are not getting the desired results, what must be done and how the negative results affect the whole organisation. A business is a team effort and one undesirable result, even a minor one, can affect the whole team. This type of approach is a good way of promoting accountability in the company by laying out what the stakes are. Watch out for the signs of lacking accountability so you can identify and work on them as soon as possible.

More Concerned About Keeping Their Jobs Than Doing Them

The difference between keeping a job and doing a job may be minor but the impact is way bigger. Employees who are trying to keep their jobs become so desperate that they avoid taking any calculated risks and become less thoughtful. Their creativity is stifled and have no new ideas to present. They try so hard to avoid any mistakes that once one happens, they start pointing fingers. This can also foster the “us vs. them” type of mentality which does no good in business.

Vastly Different Workloads

Each employee in a company will naturally have different workloads. The problem arises when multiple individuals with the same position have vastly different workloads. This means that the leader is assigning critical tasks to one or two individuals and the minor ones to the rest of the team. This can build resentment towards the leader and the team members who have nothing else to do. Everyone on the team needs to be accountable for all the tasks. Accountability should not be reserved for just one or two team members.