This Is Why It’s So Important to Demonstrate Accountability at Work
Accountability speaks to trust
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I spend most of my working days talking to people who lead teams at work.
In many ways, the most valuable thing I can offer as a People Ops leader is my willingness to sit beside other team leaders, understand the leadership challenges they’re struggling with, and help them figure out how to operate differently to achieve even greater results through their teams.
When I talk to clients about the skillsets their teams struggle with or need to develop most, accountability often rises to the top of the list. And the reason for that is not as simple as you might think.
ac·count·a·bil·i·ty: an obligation or willingness to accept responsibility or to account for one’s actions
When we think about what it looks like for someone to fail to demonstrate accountability at work, we’re often talking about it in the context of someone not doing something they said they would do.
But it’s not just that someone didn’t do what they said they would do. That’s a bummer, but the crux of the issue goes much deeper than that.
It speaks to trust.
If I can’t trust you to do what you tell me you’re going to do, then where do we go from there?
Trust is the foundation of every relationship we have, personally and professionally.
So when a leader tells me their team lacks accountability, what they’re really saying is that somewhere along the way, the relationship has gotten off track, and trust has been broken.
“Trust” is one of those things that means different things to different people, but at its core, it can be broken down into three (3) elements; competence, benevolence, and integrity.
This helps us appreciate how trust is established between two people. Before someone will…
