Managers would agree that a more accountable workforce is a good thing to have. So do you assign more responsibility? Create a punishment system? Reward initiative?

Thankfully Sean Pomery discusses the importance of accountability, and how to make it happen on talentculture.com. Read his write-up here.

The Workplace Accountability Study recently revealed that 82% of respondents have no ability to hold others accountable, but 91% of people rank accountability as one of the top development needs they’d like to see at their organization.

Employees want to keep their peers accountable when they fail to meet up to the demands of their job, in the same way they want to recognize them when they do good work. But when employees have no system of accountability in place, things can very quickly fall apart. This is why accountability matters, and why you need to invest in it.

“Mistakes Were Made”

You’ll hear that phrase from a lot of politicians: “Mistakes were made.” It’s so popular books have been written about it. This phrase makes great use of passive voice. It speaks to the general lack of accountability in a system. Does the person uttering it want to cover their own skin, or are they part of a system that has no way of holding anyone responsible for their actions? Either way, it’s a cop-out. It acknowledges problems only after they’ve been discovered, holds no one responsible for them, and tries to move on from those problems without anyone actually having learned anything.

Why do I highlight this phrase? Because it’s a perfect example of why accountability matters. When employees (and let’s be fair, managers do this too) don’t hold themselves responsible for their actions, it prevents anyone from learning from them. This ends up perpetuating those problems until someone comes along and points these problems out. It also creates a culture of mistrust among employees.

For example, 11% of managers believe 50% of their employees avoid taking responsibility. Do half of employees really shrug off their mistakes? My point is that it doesn’t matter; what matters is that those managers believe they do, and that’s the distrust I’m talking about. That distrust will build, get worse, and lead to bigger problems down the road unless something gets done. But what do we do about this?

Accountability is a Culture Problem

I really can’t stress enough how much of a culture problem accountability is. When no one trusts each other at work to do the work they’re assigned, employee morale takes a hit. Employees feel like they can’t trust their boss. They feel devalued. And when employees aren’t valued, they’re less likely to be engaged with their work; surveys say 91% of employees who feel valued at their job are motivated to do their best, versus 37% of those who don’t feel valued. So it’s a domino effect: low accountability leads to mistrust leads to low morale leads to worker devaluation leads to low engagement leads to low productivity.

So the first step to creating more accountability in the workplace is to revamp your culture so that accountability fits within it. Make sure employees know that they’ll be accountable for their work by creating guidelines about how you’ll monitor their productivity. Set weekly goals and deliverable so that employees are motivated to complete tasks on a regular basis. Most importantly, you need to make sure you’re following your own rules. Minda Zetlin (@MindaZetlin) offers some great advice:

“Perhaps the best way to create a stand up organization is to lead by example. Make sure employees understand what you expect of them, and that you’re holding yourself to the same high standard. Follow through on your promises, own up to your mistakes, and give feedback even when it isn’t easy.”

Balancing Accountability and Autonomy

Earlier I briefly mentioned how you need to monitor employee productivity, but the idea is important enough for me to expand upon it. Just how do you track someone’s productivity? Do you monitor their every action, making sure they’re always on-task and getting results? I wouldn’t advise it. Being on top of your employees like that is a recipe for disaster, and is likely to cause even more distrust in the workplace. No one wants to be micromanaged. Plus, the second you have to leave on business, they’re back to their old habits. So it really doesn’t fix anything.

The key to accountability is to passively track work without being overbearing. Have employees create to-do lists (whether they write them down or you implement a software solution) for the things they’re directly responsible for. Then leave them alone. Autonomy can be a productivity booster in the right situation, and accountability means nothing without it. When you’re micromanaging that’s not accountability. Part of accountability is responsibility. Let them make mistakes. If they’re slacking, give them feedback on it. If their lack of work is a consistent problem, that’s when you address it.

Accountability matters because not having it means no one can be held responsible. Creating accountability, then, is about creating a culture where people value responsibility, and where people understand that accountability involves a certain degree of autonomy. Accountability is important, but when implementing it into your workplace, make sure you’re giving employees as much as you’re asking from them.