About accountability

​I recently held a series of coaching roundtables on the topic of leadership during these times. One discussion point that came up is on accountability. Driving accountability for yourself and others during a crisis can be challenging.
Here are three ingredients I believe need to be present to drive accountability successfully:

First things first, everyone is experiencing similar and different challenges during this period, so acknowledging and accommodating that is a prerequisite to this discussion. Secondly, companies are hit hard by this global crisis, some are slowing down, others are ramping up. For those that are blessed with a thriving job, there is a need to keep things moving - hence, the topic of accountability.

1. Clarity: Accountability is an (un)spoken agreement. For any agreement to hold, there needs to be clarity of expectations. From a leadership perspective, this means clarity of the expected outcome, parameters, alignment check-points etc
2. Capability: For someone to get something done, they need to know how to do it or where to go to figure out how to get it done. This is where capability comes in - enabling the actor to get it done. If you are on the receiving end, asking for support if you need it.
3. Reciprocity: Accountability is usually not broken the first time around, it's typically on the 3rd or 4th time. That's because, the expectation of reward, appreciation or acknowledgement wasn't clear. What the actor gets (or doesn't get) for completing (or not completing) the expectation needs to be clarified for there to be balance!

​What else is important to you in driving accountability?