Developing a Culture of Accountability (Part 1)
Cracking the Code of Team Accountability in Construction Leadership
Creating an accountable team is a goal of every construction business owner and executive I’ve ever met. It’s an especially hot topic when a team is losing more than winning. Everyone says they want a culture of accountability, but it’s important to first define what that means.
Defining Accountability:
Webster defines accountability as the quality or state of being accountable, especially an obligation or willingness to accept responsibility or to account for one's actions. That seems like a good start, and to build on that, in my experience, there are often three layers of accountability a team must exhibit to truly have a culture of accountability. First is the extent to which each individual takes responsibility for what’s expected of them. We’ll call this BEING accountable. Second is everyone’s willingness to call themselves out for their mistakes and take steps to make things right. We’ll call this TAKING accountability. Third is the team’s discipline in creating an environment of consequences for those who are consistently missing the mark. We’ll call this HOLDING people accountable.
Taking Stock:
Take a step back and assess your current culture. Does everyone on your team take responsibility for what’s expected of them and do whatever it takes, including getting help from others, to ensure expectations are met? If so, you likely have a strong culture of accountability and you are fortunate to have strong team members who put the mission over their egos. In this environment of BEING accountable, missed expectations are an extremely rare occurrence and, as a result, people rarely must TAKE accountability and there’s nobody to HOLD accountable for their failings.
On the other side of the spectrum, here are some questions to help you explore if your culture of accountability is lacking.
Are there regular fire drills caused by the team skipping steps?
Do people blame others (including customers) for missed expectations?
Are there people on the team today who are known to regularly miss expectations?
Do people blame their workload and limited time for missed expectations?
Do problems become known after the fact, so that it’s too late to avoid significant business impacts?
Where to Start:
To keep the information bite-sized and newsletter friendly, this is a two-part article, and next week, we’ll spend the whole time on how to create this ideal culture of accountability. Today, however, we’ll focus on where to start. Here goes...
AT THE TOP.
That’s right. No amount of advice we’ll cover in next week’s newsletter amounts to a hill of beans without the people at the top of the organization demonstrating the highest standards of personal accountability. The entire system lacks integrity when the people or person at the top sets a poor standard themselves. That doesn’t mean the business owner or CEO should be down on the front lines doing every job in the business. That approach is inefficient and, while you may have the love and respect of your people, the business will lack strategic direction if the General spends too much time in the trenches.
Accountability at the top means the owners and executives must know what is expected of them in their role and BE accountable to ensure those expectations are faithfully met and exceeded. For the people at the top, this can be a challenge. Part of being at the top means there’s nobody to fire you for performance issues. It also means you may be used to having a very fluid job description so that it is hard to know exactly what is expected of you. When leaders are unresponsive to emails, hard to track down, and even known to be unreliable in execution, how can those same people be expected to create a culture of accountability? Step one then is for leaders to look in the mirror and make a commitment to be totally clear about the expectations of their roles and even more committed to those expectations than they expect out of others.
Aside from role clarity and commitment to BEING accountable, there are some other things leaders can do to help them set a better standard for the organization. While many resist the perceived threat to their authority, leaders often benefit from the creation of a Board of Directors to act as an authority over the top executives. Hiring a consulting firm like ours is also a step in the direction of executive accountability.
Bottom line: invest no energy in HOLDING your team accountable until you, as a leadership team, are setting the right standard.
More on accountability next week!
The Spark Notes:
Explore essential layers of accountability - BEING, TAKING, and HOLDING - for a resilient team culture.
Swiftly evaluate your team’s accountability with key questions, identifying strengths and areas for improvement.
Understand leadership’s pivotal role, emphasizing role clarity, commitment, and effective methods like Boards of Directors for executive accountability.
