We often hear that a hallmark of a good leader is someone who holds his/her people accountable. After a couple of recent incidents, I began to think about the concept of accountability and whether it existed only in an individual or was part of an organizational culture.
We used to have a cleaning lady who was not very thorough, but we knew that she needed the work. In addition to her rather haphazard cleaning, she also broke things. Worse yet, she lied about it and attempted to hide the evidence. Still, I lacked the courage to fire her and just continued to accept her excuses. When COVID hit, we stopped having anyone come into our home, so that ended the issue. But Glenn likes to say it took a pandemic for me to do the right thing.
Recently, I contracted with a cleaning service that generally gets good reviews. However, following the second visit, we discovered that a floor lamp in our front room was leaning like the Tower of Pisa and had its base broken. We decided to say nothing because the lamp is rather old, and it could have been an innocent accident. However, last week after our third visit, two different cleaners left without comment, and we discovered a broken shower rod and crumpled shower curtain lying on the floor of the guest bathroom. This time I called the company and lodged a complaint. The manager assured me that that was unacceptable behavior and that they’d pay for a replacement. They also promised to not send those same cleaners back. Hmm, two data points don’t make a trend (we know that from Baldrige!), but are these two examples of a culture that doesn’t promote and reinforce accountability? How are their cleaners trained to deal with accidents in a home? What standards are there? What is their process for telling the homeowner as well as their supervisor? What is the approach used for service recovery? And how is the effectiveness of the process measured?
Accountability in Baldrige begins in Item 1.1
I decided to look to Baldrige for insights, and I searched the Baldrige Excellence Framework for the word, “accountable.” As one might expect, the concept is first found in Item 1.1, Senior Leadership. It asks how senior leaders create an environment for success now and in the future in part by cultivating organizational accountability and then demonstrating personal accountability for the organization’s actions. Accountability reappears under Item 1.2 regarding senior leaders and their role in the governance system. And the term appears in two core values and concepts, Visionary Leadership and Valuing People, and finally in the Glossary definitions of “high performance” and “workforce engagement.”
Accountability also demands caring per Tom Peters
Tom Peters argues that accountability also demands caring, that holding others accountable is about enabling them to learn from the experience, to not shy away from future opportunities to take intelligent risk, and to invest themselves more fully in the noble purpose of the organization. Why, then, do people resist accountability? For the most part, it’s because being held accountable in the past has meant shaming, rebukes, and negative discipline. How best to turn this around? As Baldrige exhorts, leaders must (first) demonstrate personal accountability for their actions as they relate to the organization’s success. This requires transparency, humility, and a willingness to admit mistakes. Second, they must compassionately hold others accountable for not only the results they are expected to achieve but the behaviors in which they attempt to achieve them. If the organizational values are to become real and a cultural underpinning, they must be more than words laminated on a poster in the conference rooms or tucked behind an employee’s badge. They must be the manner in which leaders make decisions, the language they use, and the standards for behavior in all actions taken.
Accountability requires being proactive following up on action plans
There is another concept that should accompany accountability, and that is being proactive. People seldom fail to meet goals unexpectedly. A well-developed project plan includes leading indicators that are predictive of the outcome measure that is in need of improvement, and interim tasks and milestones by which to assess progress. In this way, we can foster learning and maybe even restore the project to a probability of success.
Five Accountability Questions
What would be the benefits of a more accountable organization? How accountable is your organizational culture? Do you avoid those crucial conversations? Do you demonstrate your own accountability? How do you positively reinforce accountability?
