The thing about accountability is that it comes from within. Your employees are intrinsically motivated to fulfill their commitments for their own reasons. Not because an employer tells them to.
Employees who mandate responsibility through a top-down approach belittle their employees. These strategies may prompt momentary accountability, but do nothing to encourage employees to find their own way to stay on top of things. Sooner or later, you’ll be back to square one.
If one of your goals is to build accountability on your team, this blog should help. Below, Millennium Omaha covers 4 different strategies to promote sustainable and long-term accountability in the office!
Define Who’s Accountable For What
If you can only implement one strategy from our list, this one will make the biggest difference. Employees will be more accountable if they know exactly what they’re responsible for. Spend time defining what each team is responsible for, and then type it all out. Consider short-term and long-term job duties, along with company-wide commitments that support your company’s values.
Have Positive Expectations
There’s a psychological phenomenon known as the Pygmalion effect. Your team’s performance is controlled and influenced by your expectations of them. If you suspect that they’ll fail to deliver, they likely will. If you expect them to deliver on time and be accountable, they likely will.
Try it out for yourself. Tell an employee or team that you want a particular standard met, expect them to deliver, and then they’ll typically rise to the occasion.
Create an Environment of Trust
When your employees are scared of punishment, finger-pointing becomes inevitable. The key to promoting accountability is to not punish whenever things go south, instead encourage employees to hold themselves responsible. To create an environment of trust, you can:
- Host team bonding activities
- Encourage regular team and team member interactions
Feedback Loops Are Your Friends
Being a good business owner means both dishing out and receiving feedback on a frequent basis. Give feedback to your employees to explain to them what they’re doing well and what you’d like them to improve on. Receive feedback from your employees to see what you could implement to better the overall working environment.
Feedback loops help employees feel heard, and stop concerns before things get out of hand. Remember, accountability is intrinsically motivated. If your employees are happy, they’ll be more accountable.