Establishing Accountability at work through teaching responsibility and building

A client I am working with was telling me that his company, a global firm with a well known brand, is cutting back on travel expenses. Things are still tight out there and the global economic meltdown is far from over.

However, during the conversation it was revealed that there have been ongoing issues with staff not being clear on instructions...or not following through on tasks..or..being bent out of shape because they don’t like what they are expected to do, and so they pout and sabotage the success of the project. They sabotage by saying yes to something when they really mean no. Or they spend the next few days around the water cooler stirring mud, bringing the tone and energy of the rest of the team down with them. Or they bring maximum drama to every activity. Or drag the chain, drawing out the process so that it goes on and on. The level of accountability at work is very low.

Anyone know the feeling of being in this kind of environment where there is an almost non-existent accountability at work.

I asked my client if he could estimate just how much time he was spending on any or all of these issues?

Easily these issues and situations were consuming at least 30% of his time and energy, if not more.

“What about other people in your organisation?” I asked. “How systemic is this kind of lack of responsibility and accountability in your organisation?”

“Oh, it is really bad. There seems to be a whole culture of people who do not want to take responsibility for their communication, their instructions, their work. We have very little accountability at work here.”

“How much do you think this is costing the organisation in time and money?” I asked.

So on the one hand we have the trimming of the travel budget, while on the other hand we have a leaky bucket. And the leak is not going to go away without some rigorous training on how to speak with clear authority, deliver clear and detailed messages, be assertive, build accountability at work, take more time teaching responsibility and creating trust relationships.

A a real crisis in our time is of lack of responsibility and the lack of accountability at work. I wrote about this in my recent article on health care. People simply don’t want to take responsibility and be accountable for their actions. They want to pass the buck, blame others, or expect someone else to fix the problem while they sit and watch. I consider this human behaviour a social pandemic, and a serious contributing factor to many of our social and environmental ills.

When we are teaching message delivery to clients the most critical point we make is done using a question.

“If I deliver a request to person Z for task A to be completed, who is responsible for getting the task completed?”

“Or, looking at the example about my clients issues in the global firm, who is responsible for all of the time issues needing management because of staff behaving badly?”

Most of the time we tend to blame the staff. It is their fault. They are lazy. Incompetent, don’t listen, complain, sabotage.

In my world, it is my client who is at fault. They need to take responsibility for not being clear enough, or assertive, or addressing the issues in a clean and clear way.

My clients communication to his team has not been effective for the circumstances. He is not holding people to account. He is not nailing every detail down so there is no space for confusion, error, backstabbing, sabotage...there is no accountability at work.

Let me give you an example. I am going to use an extreme case. (Many people are very reliable, and often we have built a very functional and responsive relationship with them, so this level of drilling down is not required. However, for those exceptions the detail below is required.)

Person A = the requesterPerson B = the person designated to carry out the request. In this illustration this person is typically a complainer, is lazy, doesn’t listen to instructions well, and will cause some serious mud stirring if given any chance. Or they don’t like you and will play against you.

“I need task DCF completed by Tuesday next week. I would like Dan and Paul involved. I also want it to have elements 1, 2, 3.”

Person B. “You want me to get DCF done by Tuesday. You want me to bring in Dan and Paul, and also include 1,2,3”

“Now, I know you have had trouble with D and C in the past. How do you feel about completing this now?” (Person A is speaking from personal experience, and is addressing specific issues that have not been done well in the past.)

Person A. “Are you sure? You are saying that this will not be an issue at all?” (Look them direct in the eye when you are asking this.)

Person A. “OK. I have your word on that.” (Looking them in the eye as they nod.)

“What will you do if you have an issue or problem with any part of this process?”

Person B. (Stalls on this one. They usually hate admitting they need help) “Oh, I don’t know?”

Person A. “When will be the best time to come to me if there is an issue that cannot be resolved?”

Person A. “I would like you to come to me as soon as you know you have an issue that cannot be resolved. Is that understood?” (Looking them direct in the eyes.)

“So is there anything else that may get in the way of this project being completed on time?”

Person A. “Are you sure? You are not going to have issues with Mary, or your health or..?” (Name the issues that this person usually brings to the table as an excuse.)

Person A. “Ok, so we have established that you will do X if there is a problem and that you will not have any issues with your ...?” (Looking them in the eye, get their response.)

“Now, do you understand the implications of not having this be done by Tuesday?”

Person A. “Well, who do you think is relying on this project being complete by Tuesday?”

Person B. “I don’t know. Maybe Paul’s team?” (Person B rarely think about the consequences of his actions.)

Person A. “Have you considered the the marketing people? What about the sales team? How are these people likely to be affected if this is not done on time?”

Person B. “Well, I guess they won’t be able to get started on their work?”

Person A. “Yep, you got it. They rely on us getting this complete by Tuesday. So do you understand that if we do not do this by Tuesday, there will be significant consequences that will affect many more people?”

Person A. “Good. Before we wrap this conversation I want to be sure that there is nothing about this project that is causing you to be upset? I know you do not agree with our line of thinking on this. But as we discussed at our team meeting last week, this is the direction we have decided to take, I am responsible for that choice, I will take full responsibility if I have made the wrong decisions. Is there anything further that you need to say to me to clear this up so we can all get on with this and do a great job, even though you think we should be doing it differently?” (Address the major point of disagreement head on, give them space to speak, and then challenge them to drop it.)

Person A. “So by that you mean that I will not hear that you are bad mouthing this project to others? At all?” (Look them in the eye as you ask them this.)

“So, I can expect you to get this project delivered on time, as we described (go through it again, in summary), that if there is an issue you will do X, that you will bring your positive attitude and that there will be no bad mouthing this project at work? That we have your full co-operation, participation and accountability for this? And that the people who are relying on you to get this done on time, have nothing to worry about. You will do it on time and well?” (Look them in the eye as you ask them this. You want them to commit to this.)

Person A. “Great. Please send me an email summarizing this conversation in bullet points by close of business today.” (Only request this if we have a serious problem with accountability.)

Person A then needs to check in at least once prior to the deadline. Often they will need to go through this whole process again, bringing a level of rigor to the accountability.

You need to be sure you have left no stone unturned. You need to be very clear and aligned with your communication.Ideally you mostly ask questions so that they elicit the answers. In doing this we be teaching responsibility as part of the process as we build accountability at work.

If my client and his team worked with all of their team in this way, applying the same level of rigor to accountability and responsibility, the system and flow would not be clogged.

When people are first asked to step up to a level of account, you may meet initial resistance. Therefore it is essential that your message is very clear.

When you consistently deliver this level of clarity insist on accountability at work the resistance will diminish and your team will do one of two things.

We find that people do enjoy their work more when they feel a level of ownership. Their self esteem goes up as they begin to feel valued as a contributing asset to the business.

Ultimately this level of rigor around your communication as a leader will save you time and energy. You will have less fires to fight, and more time to dedicate to the work that you were employed to do. Building accountability at work will save you and your organisation time and money

While the process outlined above of building accountability at work may look simplistic, it does take practice. Please ask questions if you have any, and do provide feedback. I would love to hear your stories of how this approach to building accountability at work has contributed to your success as a leader and saved your organisation time and money.

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Establishing Accountability at Work

through teaching responsibility and building trust relationships

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