When employees have the results in danger of not being achieved, we want them to go through the analysis of what they are doing wrong, assume they will solve it, find solutions and act... But we all know that this is not usually the case.
A Problem of Accountability
The word “accountability” means “proactive responsibility”. Lack of personal responsibility in achieving organizational goals is a widespread dilemma. In fact, on average, 60% of employees in each organization admit not to act when identifying a problem within their organization. This is because there is a natural propensity to enter the “cycle of victimization”: in the face of inefficiency or lack of results, we blame the circumstances or others.
According to Gallup data, in Portugal only 1 in 5 workers goes to their workplace every day feeling motivated - thus adding value and innovation to their work. The result is similar to other European countries, but much lower than North America, and far superior to most Asian countries.
Stop to the Lack of Accountability!
Being accountable means being above the circumstances and having a constant inner orientation that tells us "what else can I do to contribute to the goals of my organization?". To do this, leaders will have to change the mindset of their employees, transforming the typical “tell me what to do and I will do it” attitude into “this is what I will do to solve the problem”.
To overcome this situation, the most successful companies have been implementing Accountability development programs to align their employees and increase their engagement.
Developing Accountability in organizations to make Portugal more productive
I have been working for 20 years in making people more efficient and happier at work. With Bright Concept, we believed we should go further and focus on a broader intervention that integrates consulting, beyond training and coaching, and has a proven impact on the productivity of organizations worldwide.
We thus become the exclusive representatives of Partners In Leadership, the company worldwide recognized for its results in creating accountable cultures in all types of organizations. With the Accountability Program, we enhance individual and collective Accountability, which are the driving forces of an organization's productivity, innovation and success.
For example, in a multinational where we did one of these programs with all employees, the impact has been noticed since the first Workshop, where one of the employees made this comment: "I've been working in the industry for many years and I've had a lot of training, but this was the most important thing I've had, no doubt. I became totally committed to helping the company achieve key results".
3 Best Practices for Developing Accountability
- All employees know the 3 Key Results of the Organization - it is essential that the leader has clear vision with key results, and that all employees can tell and understand what they are. People tend to be more engaged and interested in their work when given this big picture, as it allows them to frame what they do in the bigger picture of the company and to feel involved in something bigger than themselves.
- Be aware when you are playing the excuse and blame game - knowing how to identify this cycle is absolutely necessary so that you can turn it into a cycle of accountability and results.
- Creating a constant feedback culture - it is also very important that everyone knows exactly what is going on, what their contributions are to the big picture, and eventually how they can contribute the most. This means, for example, making regular 360º evaluations and collecting customer evaluations frequently.
Our goal is clear: we want to get Portuguese organizations to make this change of mind and to go much further than they think they can!
Isabel Freire de Andrade
CEO Bright Concept
