What exactly is workplace accountability? Is it blindly following orders from on high? Or is employee accountability a commitment to which the individual employee adds his or her own creativity -- their own mark?

We view accountability as an explicit or implicit agreement between an employee and his or her manager to deliver the value expected by the employer with no surprises. Value is defined through the requirements of the job; profitable sales or satisfied customers for the sales professional or accuracy and efficiency for the accountant.

Workplace accountability is a state of mind; a willingness by the employee to take personal responsibility for his or her goals and, often, a determination to go the extra mile. It grows and is nurtured based on the relationship created between the employee and his or her direct supervisor. To this relationship,like any relationship, each side brings a set of expectations or assumptions which may or may not be realistic. It is up to the supervisor to make sure that the employee’s expectations are realistic.

Elements of Workplace Accountability

An environment conducive to workplace accountability is made possible through a combination of elements. These include:

1. Effective Leadership: To what extent are the organization's leaders actively involved in managing performance? Too often, the assumption is that "good people will always manage themselves" but not even the best can do so without direction. Are the right people in the right jobs? Are job goals and priorities clear? Is feedback provided? Are the "doers" rewarded? Is there adequate follow-up?

2. Strategic Direction: Is firm direction (vision, values) clear? Is a flexible strategic plan in place to guide operations, but not hamstring them? Is the process simple? Is the strategy communicated effectively?

3. Key Goals and Measures: Do firm goals and measures spell out milestones and priorities? Is the firm's strategic direction linked to operations? Are goals and priorities set for each employee? Do employees know how their work and results will be measured?

4. Alignment: To what extent are your processes and procedures in sync with your operating direction? Are priorities constant for all departments even though each group is working on different sub-tasks? Or do some departments and their priorities work against others?

5. Employee Engagement: Do your employees take pride in your firm? Do employees feel that management cares about them? Would employees recommend your firm as a place to work?

6. Execution Mentality: Is execution -- getting results -- a core value? Do results count more than activity or effort? Are people expected to "step up" to challenges? Do you tolerate lackluster performance?

7. Monitor and Review Cycle: How often do you monitor and review results? Who is involved? Are adjustments made as a result of reviews? Are results communicated to the people involved?

To create workplace accountability, you may need to rethink some aspects of how you approach your job as leader. To understand why, visit "Why the Manager's Role Must Change".

To understand the value to you and your business of creating workplace accountability, visit "What is the Value of Accountability?"

As you explore these pages, keep in mind that creating accountability requires taking a systems view which encompasses questions about how you create business strategy and how you implement, how you communicate and how you involve people.

But let’s start with three basic ideas that will set the tone for this section:

1. Most of the management practices in use today in regard to managing people are based on outdated behavioral models that simply do not work in today’s environment.

2. Pay for performance plans, internal competition, forced ranking systems, incentive programs and other devices designed to motivate people actually do nothing to improve accountability in the long term. For more on this, see "Does Incentive Pay Change Behavior?"

3. The more controls you have in your business, the less often employees will take accountability and the harder it will be to get workplace accountability.

Download our special report about building accountability

Download our special report,
"The Accountable Workplace System: How to Develop Employee Commitment, Increase Productivity and Improve Profits".

The Accountable Workplace System describes seven building blocks you can use now to manage employee accountability, build commitment, improve productivity, generate more revenue and grow your business

"This is an excellent article/road map to getting accountability to be at the core of your business. I really enjoyed it and plan on implementing it immediately."

Rollie Schultz,
VP-Gordon Flesch Company, Inc.

Download "The Accountable
Workplace System"