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ACCOUNTABILITY
People can be managed by
holding them accountable for commitments
they have undertaken. Understanding
accountability is vital to effective
people-management
Anyone who has a job
inherently undertakes a number of
standard commitments:
1) Turn up to work on
time every day.
2) Perform allotted tasks
in accordance with company standards.
3) Cooperate with other
staff to achieve company goals.
4) Communicate
information needed by managers and
colleagues.
5) Support and implement
company policy.
Additionally they become
accountable for any further specific
commitments they make.
A manager, as an
employee, has these accountabilities,
plus the managerial ones:
1) Ensuring that staff
know their own accountabilities.
2) Monitoring
performance.
3) Investigating problems
and taking remedial action.
Accountability is a more
useful tool than “responsibility”
because it helps to identify the action
or behaviour that is needed.
When it is known that
people will be held accountable for
their actions, there is a tendency for
them to think ahead to what kind of
account they would be able to give. This
results in more intelligent action.
When they also know that
their account will be listened to
without their being blamed for taking
the wrong action, they become much more
collaborative in resolving problems.
Blame is toxic. It may
temporarily relieve a manager’s
frustration, but it does nothing to
resolve problems. It makes people
nervous and cowardly. They will hide
problems until the really big one
arrives that their manager has to take
the blame for.
Good people-management is
all about empowering people to make
intelligent decisions. When,
occasionally those decisions don’t work,
or the person fails to act, it is far
better to analyse the reasons, learn
from mistakes, and take corrective
action than simply to shout at them
Exercise:
1. Draw a diagram with
yourself in the middle, and draw lines
radiating out to the people that you
interact with in your job. This could be
by type (sales staff, admin staff,
customers etc.) or by named individuals.
2. For each person, or
group, make a list of about half a dozen
things that you expect them to do in
order for the relationship between you
to work.
3. Make a similar list of
things that they might expect you to do
to make the relationship work.
4. Review your lists to
ensure that you are using verbs rather
than nouns.
5. Review your verbs. If
you find you have used one which
encompasses a number of actions, break
it down into the specific actions.
Use your judgement about
how precise you make the specific
actions:
“Doing appraisals” is a
bit too general.
“Construct a schedule,
Fix appointments, Send preparatory
documents” is about the right sort of
level.
“Arrange chairs” is too
detailed. |
