The Skills Required Before Accountability

Leaders who set clear goals and expectations, clarify responsibilities for actions, and hold team members accountable for outcomes elevate individual and team performance. 

Good leaders create clarity and then ask others to do their part to reach those goals. Checking in on progress and then getting involved to support, coach, or rectify the work lies at the cornerstone of accountability. 

Often overlooked, however, are two essential skills that enable team members to become accountable in the first place: the ability to keep commitments to colleagues and the dedication to follow up on everyday tasks and activities. Without recognizing and improving on these skills, the likelihood of long-term success through accountability is severely diminished. 

Not all team members understand the importance or what it means to keep their commitments to others, especially the small ones. Doing what you say you will do is not just a personal value. It requires that team members document for themselves what they have agreed to and prepare themselves to stand good for the promise. 

While it is true some team members lack the integrity to keep their word, it is much more common for colleagues to become distracted and forgetful about the small commitments they have made to others. Remembering and preparing to deliver on commitments made is a skill worth discussing with team members who are inconsistent in keeping the small commitments made to others. Preparing to maintain the promises we make to others is a skill that can be developed. 

Equally important and foundational is the skill of follow-up. Effective team members don’t expect everyone else will do exactly what they say they will. In too many instances, they are left high and dry by a colleague who has not completed a task they are depending on to finish their work. 

The skill of following up, checking in, inquiring where things stand, or giving an update on their part is critical to performance. Unfortunately, many team members haven’t acquired this skill or the need for it. 

Leaders who demonstrate this skill through their example help others see the importance of follow-up, but it is not enough. Asking others to work on this essential competency and giving them feedback when they fall short is the work of exceptional leaders. 

Team members who lack the skills to keep small promises and follow up with others are less likely to achieve great outcomes. Leaders who hold those who lack these skills accountable to outcomes are likely to be disappointed more times than not. 

Laying the skillful foundations for accountability is essential work. Effective leadership is often created brick by brick.