“How can I create accountability without being a jerk?”
This is one of the most common questions I hear from coaching clients. Accountability seems straightforward at first, but it’s harder than it seems. Most of us have learned that you hold people accountable through reward or punishment, based on performance. But if you wait until the results are in, it’s too late. You want to influence the outcome while you still can.
A few key steps can help accountability be a more mutual idea. You can make it a source of energy rather than something threatening:
- Align on Purpose: Start with a common idea of the impact you both need to have on others. How will this work benefit your customers? What impact would make you both proud? And what are the natural consequences if you don’t have that impact? Accountability starts by feeling a strong sense of commitment to the impact of the work.
- Define Success: Agree on what success will look like. How will you know you’ve had the impact?
- Agree on Leading Indicators: How will you both know whether the work is on track? Periodically asking about the indicators sends the message that the work continues to be important. Progress check-ins create space for more neutral conversations since you both care about the outcomes. That’s when you can agree on any course corrections before the next check-in.
Accountability is not easy. It’s about delegating decisions rather than tasks, to create a real sense of ownership of the work. And that means letting go and being willing to let people make mistakes and learn from them.
That said, one of the biggest challenges in creating accountability is capability. If you don’t believe the person is able, or has all the resources they need to succeed, you can’t really hold them accountable. You want to hold them accountable, but you really can’t because it won’t serve anyone. To move forward would simply be hoping for the best, which is abdication, not delegation. In this case you can recalibrate what you’re delegating to bring it back inside the other person’s stretch zone.
Holding people accountable takes practice, so don’t be surprised if it’s challenging at first. When done well, you gain back time and help others accelerate their own growth. And that’s very satisfying.