Creating a Culture of Accountability: Driving Team Performance

Working as a team within an organization is a standard for companies seeking to reach goals and drive business success. It only works if every team member takes responsibility for their own progress. A team with zero accountability has members consistently showing up to meetings ten minutes late, missing deadlines as the norm, with one misstep turning into many.

Creating a culture of accountability is not difficult, though it is time-consuming in the beginning. However, when the process has been streamlined within your company, each person is accountable for themselves and the work they do, and personal accountability drives team performance.

In this post, we'll discuss the culture of accountability and what it looks like, how to create a culture of accountability within your workplace, and how to improve accountability through performance reviews.

In this Blog,

1. What Does a Culture of Accountability Look Like?

2. How to Create a Culture of Accountability in Your Workplace

3. Accountability Through Performance Review

What Does a Culture of Accountability Look Like?

Merriam-Webster defines accountability as an obligation or willingness to accept responsibility or account for one's actions. So, accountability in the workplace looks like taking responsibility for the tasks that have been given to you, as well as your own personal responsibility for your actions, such as missing deadlines or treating others with respect. Accountability in the workplace can:

• Increase Trust- When each individual is responsible for their own work and proves their willingness to cooperate, trust within the team grows because other team members recognize when an individual is stepping up. They know they can count on each other to get the job done well.

• Improve Quality of Work- When people take responsibility for their work and recognize that it's their name listed, they understand the value of doing a job well. Accountability improves the quality of work overall.

• Boost Employee Morale- When people aren't accountable, it comes down to others who are not directly responsible for the task, leading to feelings of resentment and frustration within groups. However, when each person shows up, does the work, does it well, and proves that they can handle it, it takes the pressure off of others in the team by showing them that all they have to focus on is tasks they're directly responsible for. This leads to a much more positive workplace culture.

• Foster Creativity- When people are happy and not stressed or overwhelmed, creativity flourishes. This enables your team to redefine productivity and progress as a whole and bring collaboration to a whole new level.

• Increase Productivity- Productivity is a tricky sliding scale. One person's productivity can be another's burnout, and still another's easy mode. When allowed to decide for themselves what productivity looks like, team members will reach and usually exceed their own expectations. Improved accountability in a team dynamic allows each individual to figure out where the line is, what they're capable of, and take responsibility for what they can.

How to Create a Culture of Accountability in Your Workplace 

Accountability is a skill that anybody can learn. It's a muscle that must be flexed, tested, and grown, but most people can't do it on their own. In order to learn the skill, you must determine that something is wrong in the first place. Here are a few steps that you can take to encourage accountability in your team.

• Lead by Example. This is a real big one, so we'll put it first. If your team is showing up late for meetings, coming in to work ill-prepared, and overall, not meeting deadlines or passing off their tasks to others in the team, first look at yourself. Have you allowed this sort of behavior? Have you participated in this behavior yourself? If you have, stop now.

• Define Expectations. If this sort of behavior has become the norm and you want to reestablish a routine and culture of accountability, set your expectations. Decide what's acceptable behavior and what's not and emulate that behavior. Be on time with your work completed and provide your own perspective and solutions to the pot in team meetings.

• Effectively Communicate Consequences. Reestablishing accountability is easier when there are clear expectations and specific consequences. If they're late, they don't get to participate in the meeting. If they don't reach a deadline, establish a suitable consequence. This communicates that their actions have direct consequences and that continuing negative behavior is not tolerated.

• Set Attainable Goals. Stretching a person's abilities before they're ready can lead to unfortunate setbacks. In order to avoid this, set goals that are reasonably reachable within a given time frame. Moreover, be specific in deadlines, desired outcomes, and consequences of failure. A good goal is measurable, definable, and reachable.

• Monitor Progress with an Accountability Framework. A Gallup study found that 50% of employees don't know specifically what's expected of them. How can a team be accountable for their work if they're unsure what you expect of them? Use an accountability framework like the RACI Matrix, which is a simple, streamlined way to define roles and responsibilities within a team.

• Encourage Commitment to Work. Encourage your team to do their best, to commit to the team and the work you're doing by aligning their individual goals to that of the team and the organization.

• Make it a Habit. Like anything else, accountability is a muscle that needs to be trained in order to perform better. Take small steps every day to cultivate that habit within your team and yourself.

• Take Responsibility for Mistakes. Everybody makes mistakes; no one is exempt from it. When it happens, don't sweep it under the rug. Be accountable for your actions. Most people have a hard time with this facet of accountability, especially when there's a lot at stake. However, by taking responsibility, you're showing your team that nobody is infallible and proving that coming forward with mistakes is the best way to get back on track. After all, no problem can be fixed unless it's made aware of.

• Encourage Positive Feedback. Feedback is a critical part of learning the skill of accountability, though most people struggle heavily with both giving and receiving. The giver often gives non-constructive feedback, and the receiver struggles to not take it personally. However, in order to develop a culture of accountability, feedback is necessary. Get good at it and encourage positive feedback to develop good working relationships.

Accountability Through Performance Review

In the workplace, accountability is a team effort. By defining expectations for your team and developing a system that encourages them to take responsibility for their individual role within the team, you're creating a culture of accountability. But one place within the team structure that has a bad reputation is the performance review, and that's because it's not done with the right intention.

For instance, the defining feature of a review that most individuals leave with is a number evaluation that gives a score of one to a billion of how horribly they've done. But that doesn't help in any positive way. Instead, they leave focusing on a number instead of ways that help make a positive change.

Ron Carucci, in his article "How to Actually Encourage Employee Accountability," lays down a foundational method for providing feedback within these reviews that makes them more efficient.

• Make Dignity the Foundation. We are hardwired to be influenced by others, and so our opinion of ourselves can be highly affected by what others say. By making dignity the foundation, connections deepen, and the quality of feedback and learning increases. Questions like "What did you learn this month?" prove far better because it allows the employee to self-reflect and create their own review of themselves.

• Focus on Fairness. When accountability systems are seen as fair, people are more likely to be honest, act fairly towards their team, and align their goals with the organization, instead of focusing on their self-interest. Carucci states, "Our accountability systems have painfully confused sameness with fairness..." in order to avoid negative repercussions for the company. However, that's the exact mentality that makes them unfair.

• Make Restoration, Not Blame the Goal. A big reason behind the harshness of performance reviews is that team members often leave meetings feeling shamed about their perceived shortcomings. However, when we allow ourselves to really learn from mistakes and not use blame as a learning tactic, we'll find that individuals are far more likely to accept responsibility for their shortcomings.

Accountability is not complicated. It doesn't require extensive knowledge but can be seen as quite an abstract concept. However, by defining the term and creating a process to help restore personal accountability within a team, you can develop a highly productive process of driving team performance in a way that encourages responsibility.

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About the Author: Anna Taylor

Anna Taylor is a freelance writer and avid researcher- a jack of all trades, but a master of none. She graduated from the University of Hawai'i with an Associates Degree in Liberal Arts because she had no idea what she wanted to be when she grew up. She has since found her love of Extended Reality and the possibilities it brings to the world, as well as gardening, cooking, and writing. Anna lives in Interior Alaska with her family.