Every leader knows that overall team performance is about each team member playing their role and part of your role is keeping your people accountable – but that can be easier said than done, right?

The Harvard Business Review shared a study that shows 82% of managers acknowledge they have “limited to no” ability to hold others accountable successfully, and 91% of employees would say that “effectively holding others accountable” is one of their company’s top leadership-development needs.

How to keep people accountable is one of the most common conversations we have with leaders and some of the regular frustrations we hear are:

Even though you set clear deadlines, they’re still often missed.
People not doing what you ask them to do.
Feeling under pressure because your team isn’t delivering.

We all know that without a clear understanding of what’s expected, it can be hard to keep your team focused and prioritising the important tasks so they meet essential timeframes.

But what many people don’t realise is that good accountability isn’t about micro-management but actually the opposite. With clear expectations and consequences, accountability is self-directed and self-managed.

If you’re not sure how to get started to create the kind of environment that leads your people to keep themselves accountable, we’ve got you covered.

Here is the 6-step process we share with leaders to help them drive stronger accountability in their teams:

1. You need to demonstrate accountability before you can lead it. Do you do the things you say you’re going to do? Leaders need to walk the talk first, and then you can effectively help other people be accountable too.
2. Set clear goals and expectations: Make sure there is no room for doubt in people’s roles, their responsibilities and the timeframes they are required to meet. You can have a shared document or project portal so there’s no doubt about parameters.
3. Help track progress. Whether you use 1-2-1s or a project management system, set up regular check-ins so you can monitor progress as you go, not wait until the deadline. And when things aren’t moving as fast as you’d like, ask what you can do to help.
4. Call out the wins and celebrate the milestones. When it comes to performance management, we often have a negativity bias, which means we regularly look for where people are not meeting expectations. Flip that so that you are frequently acknowledging where people are succeeding, as an individual and as a team. Positive affirmation is well known to contribute to increased performance.
5. Clarify real-world consequences. There is no accountability without consequence, so spell out consequences for the individual, the team and the business impact if deadlines aren’t met or work isn’t done to requirement. And, when necessary, follow through.
6. Reward Accountability. Cheer people on when they either meet deadlines or when they put their hand up and admit their errors. Taking responsibility versus playing the blame game is behaviour to encourage.

There’s one final piece that makes a significant contribution to people staying accountable and that’s fostering a culture of ‘above the line’ behaviours. This kind of culture leads people to be more self-responsible and take ownership rather than make excuses or lay the blame on others.

But, again, that’s something that is modelled, not managed.

Lead your team to greater accountability through being self-responsible, taking ownership of your mistakes, and being accountable for what you say you are going to do too.

If you want to get better at leading accountability in your team or would love support to work with your team on ‘above the line’ behaviours, we can help.

Through our one-on-one leadership coaching or group workshops, we work with emerging or experienced managers and executives to nail the accountability skill set.