Be accountable – no excuses!
Focus on Accountability
In March 2020, when the spread of the Coronavirus started to rise in North America, it shook the foundations of our professional and personal lives. How we worked, where we worked, and how we went about our day-to-day activities changed overnight. I spent a great deal of consulting time in crisis management mode in businesses. In this unique period, we needed to focus on crisis management tactics; however, we also had to keep a close eye on the continuation of action towards goal attainment required for the bottom line.
Be An Agent of Change
To be an agent of change and accountable for your results, no matter what is going on around you (yes, even a global pandemic), you have to be 100% focused on the objectives at hand and the finish line.
I love the following definition of Accountability:
‘A personal choice to rise above one’s circumstance and demonstrate the ownership necessary for achieving desired results – to See It, Own It, Solve It and Do it.’
– The Oz Principle
Accountability does not occur if you see a problem that needs to be resolved but do not step up, own it, solve it, and follow through by doing it. I have embraced Jack Welch’s, the former CEO of General Electric‘s concept of ‘boundarylessness’ when it comes down to be accountable.
Encourage Accountability
To encourage accountability and growth across an organization, he advocated that employees needed to stop seeing boundaries or silos of responsibility in an organization. When everyone in an organization is focused on core goals, a remarkable synergy happens whereby you see a greater level of communication, transparency, collaboration, and attainment of results. Everyone knows that what they are working on will lead to goal attainment, are accountable, and the results that they are expected to achieve. When this is clear at all levels within an organization, and individuals understand how their action moves a goal forward, then in turn, the organization benefits as accountability increases exponentially.
Relentless Accountability
When individuals, teams, and units focus on achieving results, this helps foster an accountability environment that motivates employees to ask, ‘What else can I do here to make it better? This question, in turn, strengthens innovation, continuous improvement, client satisfaction, individual and team performance, quality, responsiveness, and organizational competitiveness.
Questions to ask that will help foster an attitude and mindset of Accountability
- What else can we do to improve our customers’ experience?
- How else can we improve quality?
- What else can we be doing differently to empower staff and build our team/s?
- How else can we maximize effectiveness?
- What else can we be doing to attain better results?
Accountability Tools
The tools that I use both in consulting and in my own company to track accountability include:
- Outcome scorecards, or a software dashboard with indicators to track progress
- Weekly progress check-ins to stay aligned, discuss results attained, and provide feedback
- Process write-ups and checklists to help determine what is working and can be repeated
- Project Plans, or software such as Trello or Asana help outline all activities, who is responsible for what, and when it has to be done by – excellent reference tools for all team members
Accountability = Results:
- Focus on what matters most and is of the highest value.
- Record your goals, assign scheduled time to work on a plan to provide structure and discipline to ensure you get the job done. This will enable you to focus on execution.
- Stay on top of your daily schedule and focus on three things to move your goals forward at the beginning of your day. Relentless consistency will ensure you follow through and get the scheduled job done.
Accountability Challenge for You!
Over the remaining days of 2020, make a pact with yourself to focus on improving your level of accountability and result attainment. Let’s be accountable for our results – no blame game for what does not come to fruition. Let’s simply make it happen.
