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When considering some of the most important qualities of a professional, accountability sits atop the list. Professionals lacking a sense of accountability will not see the same success as their accountable peers. As such, business owners and managers must carefully consider how they recruit for their staff. Even with their best efforts, it can be challenging for these executives and managers to field accountable employees. Not only that, attempting to instill a sense of accountability in existing employees has proven to be insanely difficult as well. With that being said, it’s true that the most accountable employees are also the happiest. Accountability grants employees a sense of heightened job satisfaction, while simultaneously increasing their organization’s bottom line.

Which leads to the question, how can businesses do a better job of ingraining these values into their employees? Despite some of their best efforts, recent research indicates that a number of businesses have been struggling to do so. Reportedly four out of five managers will indicate that they have limited to no endowment over their employees. When employees feel as though their managers are incapable of holding them accountable, their performance can be impacted.

There is no short cut to defining a company culture founded on accountability, nor achieving that culture. It takes every level of an organization, particularly the executive and managerial level, participating and leading by example for their employees. Typically this will mean that those executives and managers will have to be more willing to accept the blame for their mistakes and thoroughly communicate through these mistakes with their employees more often. Once they’ve been addressed, an entire organization can learn from the mistake and appreciate the lesson as a result of it.

Similarly to leading by example, establishing a company culture begins with executives and managers clearly setting forth goals and responsibilities for their employees. If these expectations are set forth early enough, it becomes much more likely for employees to adapt and meet these expectations accordingly. This isn’t necessarily an easy ask as it will likely require employees to possess an overarching understanding of how their roles contribute to the success of their organization. Knowing this, executives and managers should be more willing to have these conversations with their employees. This is easily accomplished through establishing an open-door type policy where employees feel comfortable voicing their questions or concerns.

A workplace and organizational culture of accountability requires immense effort from every level of an organization. Each part of an organization contributes to its success and that should be valued accordingly. For additional details and tips for establishing your organization’s workplace culture, be sure to check out the infographic coupled alongside this post. Courtesy of Minute7.