Tim Hebert
Management Services Committee Member
A&W Electric, Inc.

Accountability. Sure, it’s a common buzzword in today’s business world. But have you given much thought about what it really means and how it’s important for success?

We often talk about the importance of holding team members accountable for their actions. But what about those of us who are owners and managers? Owners technically have no boss other than customers and employees who are important to keep happy! Who holds us accountable?

Layers of Accountability
The short answer is that, as leaders, the best way to develop accountability that we witness in others is to model that behavior ourselves. What does it mean to hold ourselves accountable? There actually are several layers. All of them are very difficult to identify. Following are several concepts that are important at our facility:

1. Accountability to Role: No matter what your role is, every employee has specific areas of accountability. Whether working for a large or small operation, each of us should be accountable for between 3-5 key measures of success. If you’re the primary salesperson, it could be providing the owner/manager with the number of appointments completed per week. If you’re involved in operations, it could be a reaching a certain turnaround measure/benchmark. If you’re leading a large organization, it could be a specific number of coaching sessions each week with direct reports. In any event, all employees should have very specific responsibilities that they are accountable for moving forward for the health of the organization.
2. Transparency to Others: Does your team know your specific accountabilities? Do they support the company’s overall goals? Does your team understand how important your accountabilities are to the overall success of the organization? This is critical to getting employees to “buy in” to the importance of what you’re doing and thus asking for their support. Are these tracked and published for all to see?
3. Vulnerability: What do you do when you fail to hit an objective? We’re all human. Do you bury the number? Perhaps you don’t report it that week? It is only when we fail that we see our true accountability. In a recent “Weekly Huddle,” I had to report to our group two specific failures. One was where I mispriced a quote (one of my accountabilities) resulting in a job far less profitable than it should have been, and one where we lost a job not on price but where a customer was in more of a rush than we realized. Those are humbling moments – and not at all enjoyable. I am hoping that kind of vulnerability in front of my team will result in greater accountability on everyone’s part.

Summary
To summarize, holding oneself accountable is very difficult. I struggle daily. I have found it easier if I:

1. Identify my own accountabilities
2. Publish/share them all
3. Admit when I fail

True accountability is a fundamental character trait of leadership. I will always try to do better.

Categories: Miscellaneous

Tags: Management Leadership

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