“We have a bunch of well-intentioned people who set mediocre goals. And we suck at holding ourselves accountable.”
“Are we clear about our priorities? Um… sorta? The problem is we never measure our results.”
Oof. These are just a couple of recent remarks from my clients. If they sound familiar, it’s probably because struggling to drive accountability is a common challenge. Even when leaders’ hearts are all in the right place, it doesn’t magically make us great at establishing clarity and measuring results.
But why is it so hard?
Let me start by saying, I acknowledge the inherent discomfort with holding others accountable. We don’t want to demotivate our talented team by pointing out where they might be falling short. We fear damaging the relationship or coming across as a task master.
Perhaps accountability is simply misunderstood. In a recent client workshop on the topic, the group discussed how reframing accountability might mean measuring the results of an experiment and getting curious. Rather than viewing holding others accountable as a punitive act, it can be more about investigating what to do differently next time and considering how to adjust the dials. Accountability then becomes a team sport, a “you can count on me” effort to follow through on our shared commitments.
As a leader, you might think about:
Driving more clarity. In the words of Patrick Lencioni, “ambiguity is the enemy of accountability.” What are ways you can be more transparent about your intentions and the “why” behind goals? How can you eliminate (or at least reduce) ambiguous aspects of your team’s work? How can you name those uncertain bits and carve them out of your concrete goals? Is everyone clear about the purpose, roles, responsibilities, timeline, and budget of projects?
Reflecting back what you heard. As a leader, modeling accountability can be the fastest way to instill it in others. If you’re working on a skill or recently became aware of a blind spot, how might you share these growth areas publicly, and invite others to help you stay accountable to progress?
For example, I recently heard a story of a male executive who got feedback that when he facilitated group brainstorms, he commonly called on men first. Rather than get defensive, he got curious. He publicly shared the feedback he received (without revealing the source) and asked for the group’s support to hold him accountable to change.
Inspiring the group to hold itself accountable. Sure, a leader sometimes needs to step in and point out the gaps to goal. But the most effective, collaborative teams organically hold themselves accountable. They call each other out when standards aren’t being met. They challenge the collective group to exceed team goals.
If conquering accountability requires facing ambiguity head on, how might we befriend it? It’s not uncommon for teams to have goals that are a little squishy and tough to measure. If that arises, try layering in a mechanism to check results, like “a reasonable person would call that project done” or “we know our team is better off from this completed initiative because >80% of the feedback we received on it was positive, or it led to a positive business outcome, like increased revenue, happier clients, or more engaged employees.” The last thing you want to do is create oodles of KPIs that are challenging to measure and distract people from getting other important work done.
Finally, if accountability has you twisted in knots, it might be time to go back to your why, or North Star. By tapping into the purpose behind why you’re working on a goal, you might start to shift your relationship with accountability. It might help you recognize that the meaning behind the work you do isn’t ambiguous at all. That’s the kind of certainty we’re all after.