Do You Understand What Accountability Really Means?

Every leader I've ever met sees accountability as a foundational ingredient in a healthy and sustainable culture. The problem is, as is often the case with leadership and management ideas, we use the word without really understanding what it means.

Usually, we make the mistake of holding on to one or both of these hidden beliefs:

• We have a deeply held association between accountability and punishment — instead of considering it a tool to help people unlock their highest self.
• We have a deeply held assumption that accountability is a one-off event — rather than thinking it's a long-term personal conversation between manager and employee.

I suggest thinking of accountability as a dial with five steps. You start at the low end, and then turn up the dial if necessary.

It's the first three steps — what we call the mention, the invitation, and the conversation — that most managers skip over. The last two steps, what we call the boundary and the limit, cover the ground of probation and termination, albeit in a far more humanistic and supportive frame.

• The mention. The first step is naming small but problematic behaviors in an informal way in real time.
• The invitation. The invitation is taking the time to help your employee connect the dots between patterns.
• The conversation. This is the place to go deeper, by asking questions that guide people to the "aha!" moment.

The key to building the bridge between work performance and personal growth is to focus on impacts. How are people showing up in a way that is making life harder for the people around them? It's your job to guide them to make those connections.

Accountability can help each person work through their initial defensiveness and excuses so they can get back to the work of becoming a better version of themselves.