What is Accountability — a Leader’s Guide to Effective Accountability

The term accountability may be the most overused, under-practiced word in the world of leadership, and certainly in retail. It gets thrown around in many situations. Accountability is not just a word. It is an action, it is a process, and really it is more of a cycle than anything else. It doesn’t stop. It is not an event. It is a way of leading. I covered some of this in Accountability Isn’t a Four-Letter Word, but this subject is so deep and so important, I wanted to explore it to new levels. Over the course of the month, I am going to look at multiple steps to the cycle of accountability. Beyond understating each of the steps, we will review how they can be employed to create a culture of accountability.

This excerpt is from the previous article I mentioned before. It sets the stage for where this deeper dive begins.

“I am going to hold you accountable” can be seen as a threat or an act of support. How can that be? Unfortunately, accountability is often used as punishment, which is not indicative of excellent leadership. Some managers say accountability needs to be applied when they really mean they are not pleased with results, and plan to use counseling or worse as consequences. This is not what accountability means at all.

It all starts with personal accountability

There is one book I usually provide to any new team I begin to lead. I think it is one of the most important fundamental starting points that is required for both success and the ability to actively participate on a high performing team. That is personal accountability. The book is, QBQ! The Question Behind the Question: Practicing Personal Accountability at Work and in Life. If you have not read it, I honestly believe you need to finish reading this article and then immediately head to your favorite book selling site (link to Amazon in the title above) and order the book (or audiobook). It clearly defines what personal accountability means and how to use it in the real world.

Personal Accountability — Owning the current and future outcomes to find a path forward to deliver the expected results or something better.

Accountability, especially personal accountability, is hard. Taking responsibility for our individual actions is not meant to be easy. It is part of our character, who we are. This will be the foundation for trust and how others see and interact with you. Owning your actions and the outcomes that follow is something that, knowingly or not, we all judge others by. We all know people who we can always count on to get the job done and done well. We also can quickly identify people who are just the opposite. Your relationship with that individual likely hinges on whether they own those issues. There is a difference between someone who is aware of their inconsistencies and is working towards improvement and someone who is clueless about how others perceive them.

Working towards a culture of accountability

The best teams, world-class teams, are made up of individuals that take accountability for their actions and hold their teammates to that same standard. They all work really well together. Accountability, done well, does not create friction or conflict. It creates an environment where trust between team members is high, respect is evident, and outcomes are celebrated. 

Culture is the output from a group’s collective actual behaviors.

Accountability is about how we act. Everyone has a role in accountability. As we will explore further in future articles, the leader has a role to play in setting expectations and supporting each individual and the collective team in moving forward. Each team member must be responsible for their actions. The culture is only as strong as the people who make up the team. Culture is the output of the collective team’s behaviors. Meaning: culture is what you do, not what you say. You can aspire to have a culture of accountability. But if members of the team routinely fall short of the expectations, do not play their part, produce sub-par work, or flat out don’t do what is asked — that is your culture. Period.

"We can only change or create a culture by behaving in a way that supports that which we aspire to be." — Chris Richardson

Intuitively, we know that accountability is bigger than it appears on the surface. There is a lot to it, and it requires active participation from everyone, but especially the leader. In the coming articles, we will look at what it takes to create that culture of accountability. Do not think this is an overnight fix or something that you can muscle your way through. This will take time, patience, and practice.

In the next article, I will introduce the ten steps of accountability. From there, we will look further into each of those steps — two at a time. My hope is that we can all reflect on our current understanding of accountability. Then, begin to broaden our horizons on what it could mean effectively implemented to create a culture for us to work within — for our direct teams and those we work with.

Join other retail leaders in continuing their development journey with Effective Retail Leader.com. SUBSCRIBE today to receive FREE leadership tips directly to your inbox and monthly newsletters that provide many tools to help further develop your leadership skills, all at no cost. JOIN NOW!

No spam ever — just leadership goodness.