Accountability Fosters Better Results and More Respect

Accountability Fosters Better Results and More Respect

S. Chris Edmonds is a sought-after speaker, author, and executive consultant. He’s the founder and CEO of The Purposeful Culture Group, which he launched in 1990. Chris helps senior leaders build and sustain purposeful, positive, productive work cultures. He is the author or co-author of seven books, including Amazon bestsellers Good Comes First (2021) with Mark Babbitt, The Culture Engine (2014), and Leading at a Higher Level (2008) with Ken Blanchard.

Do you understand how accountability fosters both better results and more respect in your workplace? Great bosses ensure respectful treatment within the organization by defining how people should treat each other. By specifying behaviors like “I do what I say I will do” and “I validate others’ ideas and efforts,” every team leader and member knows exactly how to be respectful in every interaction.

How well do your leaders hold people accountable for both results and respect daily?

The consistent accountability in organizations:

Boosts productivity
Increases engagement
Fosters respect
Reduces frustration
Alleviates anger
Works to prevent incivility

This three-step approach can help you improve accountability.

Create clear agreements. Clear agreements, formalized and agreed-to, ensure that everyone understands what outcomes are due when. Without clear agreements, people are left to “figure it out for themselves,” which erodes consistent performance. Clear agreements come in two flavors – results and respect. Great bosses formalize results expectations so that every team leader and member understands what an “A+ job” looks like for their goals, tasks, and projects.
Monitor progress regularly. Leaders must pay attention daily to results and performance traction as well as to respect and the quality of interactions. Paying attention might mean having dashboards to track task completion (Monday.com is a great visual project management platform). It definitely means leaders must engage daily to “keep their fingers on the pulse” of results and relationships, one-on-one. Tracking respectful treatment requires leaders to observe, listen, praise respectful practices, redirect disrespectful practices, and more… every day.
Apply consequences. Great bosses use consistent and appropriate consequence management. Without consequences, clear agreements and monitoring don’t ensure results or respect.

Positive consequences are applied when people are doing what you need them to do. Praise and thank others for:

Creatively solving problems
Ensuring deadlines are met
Cooperating to get work done
Treating others with respect in every interaction.

Do you understand how accountability fosters both better results and more respect in your workplace?

CHRIS EDMONDS

Negative consequences are applied when people are not doing what you need them to do. Redirect people when they miss deadlines, withhold information, refuse to cooperate, or dismiss, discount, or demean others’ efforts and accomplishments.

If redirection doesn’t get them back on track, greater negative consequences must be applied – like putting them on an improvement plan, suspending them for a time, or, if they’re unable to contribute desired results respectfully, lovingly set them free.