Accountability in today’s environment means many things. In some organizational cultures the word is shunned, whereas in others it is held up on a pedestal as something to aspire to.
Accountability can be influenced by many things including the culture of the organization, how it is modelled at all levels, and how organizations hold the space for accountability.
What does accountability mean in your organization? How is it modelled? When you think of it being modelled positively, what comes to mind?
Accountability within teams occurs at several levels, the individual, team, department and organizational. It is possible to have a team with a strong accountability culture within a weak organizational accountability environment.
There are a number of things we can do in fostering greater accountability including:
Have a great Friday,
Jennifer
Jennifer Britton
Author of From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (Jossey-Bass, 2013)
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Join us this summer for a Teams365 Coaching Group
Follow us on Twitter @Teams365
Accountability can be influenced by many things including the culture of the organization, how it is modelled at all levels, and how organizations hold the space for accountability.
What does accountability mean in your organization? How is it modelled? When you think of it being modelled positively, what comes to mind?
Accountability within teams occurs at several levels, the individual, team, department and organizational. It is possible to have a team with a strong accountability culture within a weak organizational accountability environment.
There are a number of things we can do in fostering greater accountability including:
- Having it modelled at all levels of the organization, especially at senior leadership levels. Accountability involves demonstrating respect, follow through and ownership for things that are going well, and not going well.
- Encouraging feedback – genuinely. If a feedback loop is not encouraged/modelled it is difficult to grow a culture of accountability. When everything is “fine” and no one is addressing the elephant in the room, it’s hard to start building a culture of accountability.
- Being responsible, and taking responsibility – How often is the “passing the buck” behavior happening? If a culture of this sort has developed, how do you break the habit?
- Walking your talk – if you say you are going to follow up, do it! Otherwise, it just becomes lip-service.
- Making sure that performance measures and goals are clear. If people don’t know what is expected, performance is not going to measure up.
- Be clear on roles and connectivity. Who is responsible for what? If person A does not get something done, what is the impact? What is appropriate for person B to do if person A does not complete?
Have a great Friday,
Jennifer
Jennifer Britton
Author of From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (Jossey-Bass, 2013)
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Join us this summer for a Teams365 Coaching Group
Follow us on Twitter @Teams365
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