Why It’s More Important Than Ever To Hold Yourself Accountable

In short

Rob Lancit opens by calling for an end to what he names blame game culture. He compares accountability at work to learning a sport or a skill: progress takes repetition, coaching from people with experience, and a visible effort to improve in response to it.

His central claim is that trust is the foundation of working relationships and accountability is what reinforces it. Leaders earn trust only by being accountable for their own actions, decisions and outcomes. For them that means setting clear goals, being transparent about how decisions are made, asking for feedback continually and owning mistakes. Once employees know what is expected, they can be assessed against it.

He describes the conditions that make it hold. Feedback and criticism have to travel in both directions. Wins are celebrated, and misses are discussed honestly and consistently. He recommends writing accountability into the company’s core values and mission, aligning incentives with individual performance from the top down, and using internal surveys to learn where employees think more accountability is needed. Leaders who evaluate their own performance in the open make it safe for employees to do the same. He closes with the sign President Truman kept on his desk, ‘The Buck Stops Here.’

Summary by the editors of this site. The original is Rob’s own writing; read the original at the source.