Creating a Culture of Accountability MODIFIED FROM LEADERSHIP IQ, MARK MURPHY, TEXAS ASCD

Research by Leadership IQ  Ask yourself this? Who has the worst job among the people that you supervise? Is it a high performer?  When work becomes more stressful the connections become less important leaders start barking more and investing in relationships less.  Hours per week people spend interacting with their leader increases employee engagement and happiness. People who spend 6 hours per week with their leader are 30% more engaged at work and work harder at making the workplace better for everyone. Another interesting point is how much they “like” their boss was not a huge factor. Simple presence and attention matters most.  What leaders spend their time doing tells their team what they value.  Bad leaders hate transparency, where as great leaders love it and use it to create environments of accountability and to impact culture.

Accountability  Define the excuses so everyone on the team knows what they are when team members say them.  Anxiety is a good thing. It is way better than excuses because there is action and they are trying whatever is new or is expected? Would you choose someone being anxious doing what is right with consistency over excuses and tranquility?  Research on performance reviews and evaluations – 9 out of 10 it says they felt like they got called into the Principals office whether good or bad. They actually quit acting like adults.  If we wait for people to mess up to make them accountable that means they are only accountable when the fail. At some point accountability must be pointed out when people succeed and this needs to be done really loud.