Non Profit

Many organizations, both for-profit and not-for-profit suffer from a lack of accountability; it’s not only a non-profit characteristic. In it’s mildest form, a lack of accountability is illustrated by employees who do the absolute minimum to get by and who fail to follow established procedure if their behavior is not directly monitored by a superior. When there is no accountability, employees look for loopholes in supervision or procedure which allow them to perform below an acceptable level.

In more serious forms a lack of accountability is present when employees are more deliberate in violating policy or supervisory expectation. In these situations employees seem not to care whether or not their behavior is noticed. They are only driven by their own agenda. In the final analysis, an organization’s lack of accountability results in lost opportunity, decreased production, poor morale and high turnover.

To be sure, employees at all levels can act like they are not accountable for their actions. It’s not just the lower level staff who sometimes get by with behavior which is below known expectations. Supervisors and managers who don’t follow through and do what they promised to do also illustrate a lack of an accountable culture. Many supervisors, according to most surveys, are not trusted by their direct reports.

Do you have a culture of accountability in your organization? If your answer is “no” don’t waste energy miring in feelings of shame and embarrassment; you are not alone; most of us know organizations where there are at best, accountability lapses. Begin to develop a culture of accountability by committing to at least one of the strategies I outline below. Implementing even only one strategy will no doubt improve your situation.

1. Establish high performance expectations from the first day on the job. Don’t make excuses or dream up reasons why you should allow a brand new employee to make repeated performance mistakes. You’re not doing anyone a favor. Delaying feedback results in a situation which is even more difficult to correct. It’s like a cut finger; the prognosis for a quick heal are much better if the wound is cleaned and treated immediately.

2. Model the behavior you want. If you want people to accept more responsibility for their behavior, start by admitting your own mistakes; take responsibility for how you do your own job. If you want people to learn new skills, develop your own skills. Make it a priority to attend skill-building activities yourself. Be committed to doing a better job today than you did yesterday. Everyone will notice.

3. Set up Expectation Agreements. These are not job descriptions. Expectation Agreements are normally more narrow in focus. They simply spell out how an employee is going to handle a specific situation in the future. They spell out what will be the supervisory response to compliance (might be an incentive) and non-compliance (might be a form of discipline). Specificity is the key to a good Expectation Agreement; use one when verbal feedback has not been successful.

4. Only set up expectations that you can enforce and intend to enforce. A milder consequence for non-compliance which you can enforce is better than a more severe consequence which is enforced inconsistently or not at all. As a manager, you want your reports to know, without a doubt, that you will do what you say you are going to do.

5. “Hire the Right Person in the First Place”. The job you are hiring for will seem even more worthwhile and desirable if you do a rigorous job of employee selection. You want to look for people who will be responsive to your expectations; who are conscientious, have integrity and capable of working in sync with other employees. These people may not always have the highest skill level in terms of what the job requires.

But their temperament will make it highly likely that they can meet your expectations, whether or not you are looking over their shoulder. The skills (what to do, when) of the job can be learned. But if someone’s temperament (attitudes, habits) pushes them to be continually looking for the loophole which allows them to get by with less, their likely employment success is highly problematic.

Having trouble keeping employees accountable? Want to know more about our “Hire the Right Person in the First Place” program? Our newsletter topics are a great read for any leader. Subscribe by email to lwenger@workforceperformancegroup.com and type Sign-Me-Up in the Subject line. Or, call me today at 1-877-872-6195.

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