Accountability - As Easy as it Sounds

By Harry Peasley

"I need you to compile some numbers and report on why we’re missing our commitments to our customers."

"When do you want that?"

"I need the report this afternoon and we need an action plan on how we’re going to fix the problems."

"OK, I can do that."

- Two days later – "I never heard from you on that report, do you have it done?"

"I do mostly, but I really don’t understand what commitments we’re missing."

"Just forget it – I’ll do it myself. I can get done a lot faster anyway. You got that other report to me on time, what happened with this one?"

"I just got caught up in other projects, I’m sorry."

"I guess I wasn’t very clear, don’t worry about it."

Measuring inconsistent performance against perfection can be a cause for discouragement for one who supervises others. We search diligently for ways to make our work situation better only to do more work ourselves. The bigger an organization gets, the greater the chance of serving the customer, internal and external, will fail. How does one come to grips with the struggle for excellence? Fortunately, there is a common thread that runs through all problems. Problems usually exist because someone failed to do a job and were allowed to get away with it - a failure in accountability. I'm being a little simplistic here, but when you sit down and think about it… When people are accountable for themselves, or when managers are holding their employees more accountable for their work, imagine the output you can achieve. The New Heights you can attain. The biggest problem with pure accountability is more an issue for the manager than the employee. Managers who "hold their employees accountable" are probably over-directive by nature. In this case, employees will work hard when the boss is there and then spit in their coffee when the boss isn’t looking. Why? Because the boss seems to be a tyrant. An employee to be self-accountable is to hope a job, task or project gets done. Many times this does happen, but statistically, it happens much less. When it does, it’s usually one or two "superstars" in the group and they usually get dumped on, then get burned out, then leave for greener pastures. One phrase I hear frequently, "I can manage much better when I have good people around me." Well duh!!! My feeling is if they’re hired to do a job, they’re all good people. Some need a little more help than others, but they’re all good people.

Boss's need to be better about how they "manage" in today’s fast-paced, competitive business environment. The diversity of our workforce is greater than anywhere in the world. Whenever the word diversity is talked about, the connotation sometimes becomes negative. I don’t think it needs to be, but for purposes of clarity, diversity can encompass gender, race, religious beliefs, age, personal preferences, basically ALL the ways people are different. With all the differences, there must be a common bond that weaves throughout an organization. That bond must be consistency, proper working conditions, and following up with specific feedback on whether or not they're hitting the target. When things slip, as they will from time to time, that's where accountability kicks in.

Copyright 2004, New Heights