Creating a Culture of Accountability — Reviewing the Ten Steps
Over the past several articles, I have laid out ten steps that will help to build a culture of accountability. That helps to frame the subject up and make it easier to digest. However, accountability, and for that matter, leadership, is not a simple step program. Each component takes work. Hard work, to implement, maintain, and create value for the whole.
Creating steps give a path to follow, but cannot completely define the actions and activities to take in order to create the environment you need. Creating a culture is a misnomer; leaders can only set the stage for what a culture will actually be. I explain this thought process in my article, Culture is What You Do, Not Something That You Create in a Day. As leaders, we steer, direct, and influence those around us to create an environment we believe will lead to lasting success.
We can only change or create a culture by behaving in a way that supports that which we aspired to. — Chris Richardson
Throughout the series of articles, I referred to the ten steps as a framework for supporting your accountability culture. I have also mentioned that each step plays a role in building that framework. There are essentially three components to this structure. A foundation from which everything is built upon. A maintenance and stability piece that allows the framework to be sturdy and sustainable. And finally, a component that creates lasting behaviors that is routine and cultural.
Steps 1 – 3 = foundation
Step 1 — ESTABLISH Right People
Step 2 — SET clear expectations
Step 3 — DEFINE mutually understood consequences
Having the right team members, in the right role, appropriate for the timing is the first step. Step two is ensuring that you have clear expectations and the team as well as individuals have knowledge and examples of what you are looking for from them. Step three is about understanding what happens when an outcome is reached — consequences. This can be both positive or negative. Agree on what it looks like ahead of time to avoid confusion or disappointment.
These steps build the strength of your foundation. If you do not have the right people who are clear on what they are being asked to do, and do not understand what happens when results are measured, you will struggle to build anything further or better. The foundation simply will not be strong enough to support the weight of day-to-day activities and change.
Steps 4 – 6 = maintenance and stability
Step 4 — CONDUCT detailed follow up
Step 5 — ADJUST when needed
Step 6 — BE consistent
Follow-up has to be consistent and detailed to ensure that what you establish in steps one through three remain in place. It is why it leads off the maintenance and stability portion of the framework. If you are not circling back to your team, there is no way to know what progress is being made. This is also a great place to reinforce the positives and utilize step nine.
The time will come when something isn’t working the way you anticipated it would. The macro environment changes, and you will need to adjust along with it. The strength of real leadership is shown when course corrections are evident and then made by the same person who set the initial course.
Remaining consistent is not in opposition to the previous step. In fact, practiced well, the team will trust that you will make those decisions because your actions are predictable. This will help you to be approachable and know when those adjustments are needed.
Steps 7 – 10 = culture embedment
Step 7 — REMAIN involved
Step 8 — ASSUME nothing
Step 9 — RECOGNIZE and CELEBRATE success
Step 10 — RETURN to step 1 if success does not come
It should go without saying that every leader must remain involved in their business and with their team to have a positive impact. Arguably, you are not leading if you’re not involved. It is the only way to support building any type of successful environment for your team and business.
There are many jokes about what assuming does. Unfortunately, more often than not, it is true. This does not need to translate into a form or micromanagement, though. Avoiding assumption means asking more questions, remaining curious, learning new things. It is a proactive approach to remaining involved and a form of anticipating future outcomes. Both are best practices for effective leaders.
The best way to build positive behaviors is to recognize and reinforce the ones you want. We have all experienced this as children — we knew what our parents would or would not tolerate based on the feedback they provided. When we received a reward, we tried to do more of that thing that got us the reward. If we were punished, we (usually) avoided that same behavior again in the future. The workplace is very much the same. Recognize the positive behaviors you want, and people will do more of it.
Finally, sometimes the timing, the person, or the skills just do not align with what is needed for the business at the moment. This isn’t personal, it doesn’t have to be an adversarial thing, but it must be addressed. If results do not match your expectations and every other step has been employed, then seeking a new person, who is a better match for the role at the time, is necessary.
Before we close out this look at accountability, there is one underlying skill that is a precursor to successfully navigating the support and maintenance of a high performing culture. Communication. In my article, Perception is not Reality — Vision and Communication Make the Difference, I cover the importance of not falling into a trap of chasing the perception of others. In many ways, it is a form of ‘assume nothing’. Communication is the underlying glue that holds accountability together. Each of the steps requires frequent and clear communication from the leader to the team, and between team members. In covering step eight,I highlighted the role of continual communication plays, do not underestimate that.
Throughout these articles, a culture of accountability has been used as the outcome of these ten steps. We must ask, ‘what is culture?’ Culture is created by the collective outcomes of the actual behaviors of the team. In this case, when you have a culture of accountability you have a team and an environment that does what they say they are going to do. They meet or exceed expectations by delivering on the promises they have made. It is a collective group that holds themselves, each other, and their peers to a standard that produces the results they believe are possible. This all happens through the actions of the team and the support of the leader, with a framework that guides them through any situation. Anything outside this would seem foreign and would immediately be challenged by all members of the team. That is what a true culture of accountability is.
How will you implement these ten steps to build your framework for a culture of accountability?
Additional Reading
3 Initial Steps You Can Take to Begin a Culture Change
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