Accountability is essential for high performance.
It is a social contract between people. You are accountable to someone for something. The someone could be an individual or a team. The something is a result.
Accountable means ‘count-on-able.’ You said it. You delivered it, just as you said you would.
‘Responsible’ is a synonym of ‘accountable.’ One definition of responsible is ‘being a source, cause, or agent of.’ In other words, if I am responsible, I can be counted on to originate the action(s) needed to produce the result(s).
Every job is comprised of an accountability: some specific result(s) you are count-on-able for producing within certain time frames.
People sometimes struggle with holding others accountable, fearing that those others will resent or dislike them and accuse them of being ‘confrontational.’ To be an effective leader or manager, your accountability is to hold people accountable in a respectful and clear-cut manner, despite your concerns for being liked.
Trust is often talked about as missing or weak in a team or culture. A necessary element of trust is that people know they can count on each other. Another definition of ‘responsible’ is ‘trustworthy.’
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If accountability is not as strong as you would like with your team or organization, Barry Pogorel Inc. can help make accountability present and powerful.
