Everybody hates accountability, except professionals, adults and people who aren’t in trouble. Its when we are being held to account for our actions that we see our response, and whether we fall into these categories, or others.

We talk about accountability to our team members, but probably never really explain what we mean by it, and we confuse it with responsibility. Lets clear that up.

The main difference between responsibility and accountability is that responsibility can be shared and accountability cannot. I can be responsible for a function or task successfully for years, but only held accountable (blamed, answerable, punishable) if that task is not fulfilled, or executed incorrectly. Accountability is having to explain what went wrong, and being prepared to accept a proportional consequence.

Accountability is essential to maintain trust in relationships. Societies are built on trust, and the commitments we make to each other that we follow through on. When we don’t follow through on commitments, there must be a consequence. The soft consequence is that we lose the trust of the person or organisation we let down. The hard consequence may be an economic one – we lose our means of making an income, or there is a financial penalty or tangible loss of some kind.

In privately owned businesses, it is often the business owner alone that suffers the economic or financial penalty of a team member’s actions. Too often, the business owner is too soft on accountability and wears the tangible loss. For example,

• a team member damages a vehicle (vehicle repair costs or increased premiums),
• a team member injures themselves through carelessness (increased workers compensation insurance premiums),
• perishable stock is lost due to lack of care or attention (replacement costs and reputational harm).
• An item is misquoted or just plain missed in a tender, estimate or quote. (gross margin impact)

The fundamental commitment in a workplace is the transaction that the employer will pay the wage or salary when its due, and the employee will perform tasks and duties as agreed, or as are reasonable.

Funnily enough, if as the business owner you fail to pay your staff on time, your team members are all too happy to give you feedback at the speed of light if you fail to meet your commitments. Please keep this in mind when needing to hold team members accountable.

Tips

• Set expectations on Day One
• Hold yourself and others accountable, to maintain trust
• Give feedback early and often
• Follow through on consequences as established and agreed on Day One