How To Create Accountability in Your Business
Accountability is one of the most important skills you can teach in business. It's a habit that will pay dividends for your company and its employees long after you've left the building.
Accountability is not just about creating measurable goals for yourself or your employees—it's also about being accountable to each other and to the company at large. Here are five tips to create better accountability in your organization:
1. Don't set too many goals
Setting too many goals is a common mistake that can distract you from the most important ones. A good rule of thumb is to have 2-3 main goals, plus 2-3 other smaller ones. If you find yourself with more than 5 or 6 specific goals, then your list might be too long - and it's time for some pruning!
Here are some guidelines for setting effective goals:
Make sure each goal has a specific outcome or result in mind. Goals like "grow business" or "improve customer service" aren't specific enough to be measured or achieved. You need to know exactly how much money you want to make by what date, or how many new customers will sign up before January 1st - so set your objectives accordingly.
Set deadlines on each goal so that they can be tracked over time (and not just once per year). This will help you keep track of progress towards achieving those big plans when they're farther out in the future than quarterly review meetings allow.*
*Read Setting Better Quarterly Business Goals
2. Communicate the importance of goals
Make sure your employees know why the business is working toward certain goals and which key milestones must be achieved in order to reach those goals, both short-term and long-term. You need to communicate the importance of your goals to the entire organization — If we accomplish goal ‘X’, the business will be able to do ‘Y’. If we fail, these are the consequences.
Make sure employees understand why goals are important.
Make sure employees know what they need to do in order for the business to achieve its objectives.
Ensure that every employee knows how their task contributes directly towards achieving those objectives, and how it will be rewarded in return (i.e., salary increase, team expansion, PTO, etc…).
People want to feel like they're part of something bigger than themselves—and not just some cog in a machine—so providing this kind of clarity helps employees achieve greater levels of accountability with less effort on your part.
3. Don't Assume that everyone automatically knows how to create accountability
You can help employees stay accountable for their work by establishing weekly, monthly, and quarterly KPIs (key performance indicators) that they are responsible for. For example, make time every week or two to check in with each employee on where they are with achieving these quantifiable metrics—and offer suggestions or feedback if necessary.
4. Acknowledge both individual and team accomplishments
Acknowledging individual and team accomplishments in your employee recognition program and quarterly business reviews, whether they're small or big, is an important part of building accountability.
Some tactics to try:
Make sure you're recognizing specific behaviors—not just saying "good job" without being explicit about what the employee did well. This can help avoid the feeling that you're only giving praise when someone does something wrong or makes mistakes; it also allows you to reinforce positive behavior over time by rewarding it consistently.
Keep in mind that employees want their hard work recognized as soon as they do something great—not just once a year at their annual review! If you notice an employee doing something meaningful for your business at any point throughout the year, make sure you acknowledge it right away (ideally within 48 hours). That way they feel like their contributions matter, which creates more motivation to continue working hard in future situations as well!
5. Give employees personal ownership of their roles
You can improve accountability by giving employees personal ownership of it. Asking employees about their accountability can be a great way to get them invested in the company. You'll want to ask questions like:
How can I help you be more accountable?
What additional training do you need in order for you to perform better?
Do you have any ideas on how we can improve processes around here and make it easier for everyone to be accountable?
Accountability for yourself and your employees is like a muscle. You have to work it in order to get stronger.
It can be difficult to create accountability in your business, but it's well worth the effort. You'll see a difference in how your employees respond to your requests when they know you're serious about making sure things get done. Plus, it's good for their mental health: the more responsibility people feel like they have over their work, the less stress and burnout they'll experience. The bottom line? Give them something worth being accountable for!
