How can you Build Accountability in Your Team?
In this post, I will provide, practical tips for managers to help team members understand their responsibilities and the importance of accountability.
As a new manager, building accountability within your team is vital for achieving success and ensuring everyone understands their roles.
Accountability boosts productivity and fosters a sense of responsibility and commitment among team members.
But the main challenge is, that the concept of accountability is so vague, and it becomes difficult to make your team understand the importance of accountability.
This blog offers insights and practical tips on building an accountable team culture.
By implementing these strategies, you can lead your team effectively and drive better outcomes, by, making sure that each team member knows what they are accountable for and why it matters.
The Misconceptions
Misconception#1: The goal is not accountability
Setting a goal for team members will not make them accountable!
Goal is a just a target that they have to achieve and it is nothing to do with being accountable.
When the team members don’t achieve an assigned goal due to various reasons, it does not mean they are not accountable and vice versa.
Let’s take an example of a sport like football, basketball, or any other sport. In every game, one team wins, and the other team loses. But both teams have the same goal - to win. For the team who lost, could you say they were not accountable?
Misconception#2: Responsibility is not accountability
Responsibility defines the outcome that a team member must aim to achieve.
As a manager, you cannot use an outcome to measure the accountability.
For example, a team member is responsible for finishing the assigned work on time.
Let’s take an example situation where the team member didn’t complete the work on time due to external factors or other dependencies. This does not indicate the team member’s accountability.
Definition of Accountability
Accountability is an obligation. Accountable is being answerable for the actions that a team member takes to fulfill the responsibilities.
Responsibilities define the results expected, accountabilities are the actions taken to get to the results.
In any role, an employee is accountable or answerable for the actions taken irrespective of the result.
Let’s go back to the example where the responsibility of the team member is to finish the assigned work on time. In case the work isn’t finished on time, the team member is accountable for the following.
communicating about the dependencies to the stakeholders
providing clarifications to the peer teams if needed
being available for the status update meetings to highlight delays
taking proactive action to be ready in case other teams delay their part
taking the help of the manager or any senior member of the team
finding workarounds
and so on
The 3-Step process
The 3-step process will help new managers bring awareness in the team about accountability and help in bringing clarity to team members about their accountabilities.
The 3-steps are - Purpose, Measures, and Checkpoint.
Step#1: Purpose
Setting a purpose for accountability is important.
Many team members don’t understand what is accountability and its purpose.
So clarifying the team members about the purpose of each action while performing assigned work will help in bridging any gaps.
Once there are no gaps, there will be clarity among the team members about their accountability.
With this clarity, your team members will be aligned on why it is needed, and in turn, they will work towards it.
Step#2: Measures
Agree on how accountability will be measured.
It could be different from one team member to another.
Examples of measures are as follows.
Regular communication of the progress of the assigned work
Keeping the peer team updated on the progress or dependencies
Taking help from the Manager when there are delays
Finding time from reviewers for the design and code reviews
Writing documentation for handovers
Writing unit tests for any code
Informing about vacation ahead of time
and so on…
If these kinds of measures are discussed and agreed upon with the team members, then you can question them when they don’t follow these measures.
Step#3: Checkpoint
It is not enough to set and agree on the purpose and measures for accountability.
The accountabilities must be reviewed frequently to make sure it is working.
As a manager reminding your team members about the purpose and measures for being accountable is one of your accountabilities.
So have regular checkups on how things are going, whether there are any doubts, and whether any new measures are to be added.
This will ensure the process to make the team accountable can be achieved.
How to make a 3-step process effective?
Transparency
Being transparent about the progress, setting goals, and setting measures will help you to keep the team always informed.
As a manager when you show transparency, your team members will also be transparent about the progress.
This will help in making sure the measure will work in favor of you.
Trust
Building trust with the team members is an important aspect of management.
Without trust, nothing happens in the team.
If you feel that the team members don’t trust your intentions, then reaching out to such team members and bridging the gaps will help in achieving accountability.
Final Thoughts
As a manager, be crystal clear that the outcome of an assigned task cannot be used to decide whether the team member is accountable or not.
Irrespective of the outcome of the assigned work, accountability is the action taken by the team member to reach the desired outcome.
As a manager, you are also accountable for making sure your team members understand their accountabilities.
The actions you must take are provided in the form of a 3-step process - Purpose, Measures, and Checkpoints.
The 3-step process will ensure there is no ambiguity about the actions that team members must take while working towards assigned tasks.
Being transparent and building trust with the team members will determine the effectiveness of the 3-step process.
Happy Management!