Commitment and Accountability

Commitment and Accountability
for your Business Results

Accountability is of equal importance to commitment and, in fact, the relationship between the two is an incredible formula for dramatic success and performance in your business. Having an accountability policy in place is a key pathway to making a high performance organization successful. Businesses today are paying more attention to personal mastery and responsibility, emotional intelligence and accountability than ever before. How do you account for that is a powerful question that needs to be asked and answered. Whether you are looking at success or at failure, knowing that this question will be asked and must be answered is a great start.

It takes an organization or an individual that is ready to accept and understand the benefits and the freedom that come by living in an accountability culture. So what is accountability, and how do you build a culture that encourages, teaches and enforces it? By definition, accountability is being answerable or responsible for something. Accountability opens the door for not just financial ownership, but for intellectual and emotional ownership. It answers the question: In what way did I contribute to this?

Accountability and positive change come from learning and conversation, and that can start happening immediately. These conversations need to clearly define goals, opportunities, obstacles and responsibility. Accountability is an amazing form of discipline. In my opinion, without a culture of accountability, there is a culture of permissiveness. A culture of permissiveness rarely works toward getting the bottom line results we are looking for.

A system of accountability works well in a business environment because it recognizes that each employee is a major contributor or has the potential to be one. When executives or managers are looking to build teams and manage their talent, having an accountability system in place clearly defines expectations and goals. It defines talent and actual business performance in a highly structured and coordinated manner.

To build an accountability culture and policy, the following must occur:

  • Build a systematic method that defines expected time frames, daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and annually.
  • Make sure the business or individual is ready to accept the accountability system and understands the benefit that working in this type of culture provides.
  • Determine what you want and what you truly want to have happen, and clearly define expectations and goals. Setting goal time frames and establishing accountability are equally important. These are the questions to answer: What do you want, by when do you want it, how will you be held responsible and to whom will you be accountable?
  • Make sure you have all the internal and external supports and resources to reach the goals and that the systems and team members are aligned;
  • Continue to assess and reassess what is working and what is not; By seeing accountability as more than a means of having to answer to someone and viewing accountability as a tool for success, you can actually keep morale high, motivate employees and ultimately can move the business as well as individuals toward excellence and high performance.

    • Shelly Berman-Rubera, President of Small Business Results, Newton, MA, is a consultant and speaker, working with small business owners as a resource for creative and contemporary ideas to grow businesses.

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