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When we think about accountability, it’s easy to think about discipline. We conjure images of the class clown being sent to the principal’s office, or perhaps being fired from a workplace because you were late for each shift one too many times. But while accountability can be punitive, that’s hardly all it’s good for. This is important to express, especially for workplace leaders who hope to inspire and not necessarily crack the whip against their staff. 

Sometimes, of course, you do need to enforce the actions that your staff have signed a contract to partake in and do so fairly. But it’s also important to know - what other benefits can accountability have? Understanding this can help you integrate those measures more capably into your firm, which allows you to manage your people and operations more successfully as time goes on.

In this post, we’ll discuss a few essential methods you might consider when planning out such a goal:

Fostering Trust

Accountability doesn’t just protect your business, it protects others in the company too. So for example, if an essential safety procedure hasn’t been followed as necessary, a whole team hasn’t been written up for improper action, but the individual responsible for the issue. This means that fair treatment applies to anyone, and you’ll only proceed with disciplinary action in examples that warrant it, and when those examples can be proven thoroughly.

For example, you might use that process to show that the loss of inventory was due to a lack of RFID tracking software, not direct theft. This fosters trust in the team, and you can cement that by offering a very clear document that carefully explains what constitutes a particular infraction.

A Positive Company Culture

Some may think accountability is the same as having some kind of quasi-secret police within your firm, but of course, that’s not the case. It’s about making your standards very clear and then providing the right support pathways for people to escalate issues when they feel they have to do so. That might seem obvious in retrospect, but it’s not always clear when trying to come up with a robust policy that includes everyone. 

A positive company culture is reinforced by effective investment in your HR department. This might also include appropriate escalatory measures for internal disagreements and conflict, a zero-tolerance policy towards harassment, and providing a healthy aind inclusive space for everyone. This way, your company culture can develop in a wholesome setting, even if not everyone is the best of friends at work, day in and day out.

Dry Runs & Ensuring Compliance

All restaurants are subject to health inspections from the public health department. In order to make certain they pass the inspection and trading operations aren’t halted while possible fixes are made, many restaurant chains will hire a third-party investigator to come at random and hold the restaurant to higher standards than the health body will. In this case, the staff are being held accountable for keeping the best standards they can all year, so that when the real inspection happens, they can fly through it without having to do anything special to keep up. 

This allows compliance to be met. As you can see, accountability is not just about punishment, but about truly testing the understanding of your staff and adding pressure to conduct their role correctly. This allows for not only a better workforce but one utterly informed as to their duties and how those influence the forward potential of the business.

Gaining Stakeholder Confidence

Any experienced stakeholder will tell you that while a healthy balance sheet is of course necessary, it’s not the only predictor of the potential in a business. In fact, being very clear to your stakeholders about the measures you’ve selected for internal self-regulation can show if you’re being proactive enough about restructuring, while remaining adaptable and resilient in equal measure.

For example, it may be that restructuring a department that may have been lacking performance wise and streamlining those duties can help you ensure proactive change, while also using accountability to ensure the correct problems are identified. The kind of confidence you retrieve from those looking into your internal structure can be heightened by such actions, and of course, you will be accountable to their own judgement with clearly discussed reasons for decisions made. Over time, even bold new strategies will be clearly communicable, and showcase a willingness to lead from the front. If anything, the most essential element of accountability involves sharing credit with your team, but taking responsibility for their failings.

With this advice, we hope you can use accountability as more than just a necessary disciplinary tool.