A Guide To Founding A Business Predicated On Accountability
While there are many elements to becoming a successful professional, many would advocate toward developing a sense of accountability above all else. It’s nearly impossible to progress in any avenue of life without a sense of accountability, but an argument could be made that every professional’s career is predicated on it. It goes beyond just professionals, businesses as a whole must have a keen sense of accountability. This is impossible without a staff full of accountable employees. This is a challenge that every business must overcome, as finding naturally accountable employees will require some precise scouring. When this fails, these businesses must help establish a sense of accountability in their existing employees. By taking more responsibility and accruing additional accountability, employees can grow both personally and professionally.
When businesses are tasked with instilling this in their employees, the challenge falls on the laps of managers. Unfortunately, recent research would indicate that they’ve been struggling. Nearly four in five managers display little to no effectiveness when keeping their staff accountable. This sets a terrible example for employees beneath their managers in a professional hierarchy, so much so that nearly nine in every ten employees believe their organizations need to better prioritize strategies to hold them accountable.
While the responsibility falls on managers, their job is nearly impossible without the help of the organization at large. Before an employee can ever fully lean into their position, a company must first identify their goals and expectations of employees. As applicants, these goals and expectations should be clear so that if they join the organization, they can be integrated immediately. This also means that employees should understand how their role contributes to the success of their organization. When this contribution is understood, employees can achieve a renewed sense of productivity and satisfaction with their position.
Forming a company culture throughout an organization can be difficult. Accountability specifically is a tough value to instill into employees, but one effective way to do so begins at the top of an organization’s hierarchy. Executive and managerial staff need to set the bar high enough in regards to taking blame and communicating their mistakes and their suggested solutions. Only through this communication can an issue or mistake be properly assessed and solved. This is the type of accountability that employees should strive to achieve and there should be no better example than a company’s executives.
Do you believe your organization is struggling in regards to a company-wide commitment to accountability? While it is a challenge across every industry, the infographic accompanying this post includes some very valuable information related to some strategies to ease the process. Please spend some time checking out the infographic, courtesy of Minute7.
