{"id":48434,"date":"2022-11-16T12:56:31","date_gmt":"2022-11-16T17:56:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ccl.org\/?post_type=articles&p=48434"},"modified":"2025-05-08T07:00:49","modified_gmt":"2025-05-08T11:00:49","slug":"yes-you-can-increase-accountability","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/www.ccl.org\/articles\/leading-effectively-articles\/yes-you-can-increase-accountability\/","title":{"rendered":"Yes, You Can Increase Accountable Leadership"},"content":{"rendered":"

Have you ever griped about employees\u2019 lack of initiative? Grumbled over their unwillingness to take ownership of projects, processes, and problems? Then just shook your head, thinking there\u2019s nothing you can do to boost accountability when you\u2019re dealing with problem employees<\/a>?<\/p>\n

The challenge for organizations is that accountability is intrinsic. People have to choose \u2014 for themselves \u2014 to act with ownership and accountability.<\/p>\n

But accountability can<\/em> flourish in the right environment.<\/p>\n

If you want accountable leaders, you need to create the conditions that encourage people to fully own their decisions, as we explain in our guidebook, Accountability: Taking Ownership of Your Responsibility<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

Build a Culture of Accountable Leadership<\/h2>\n

5 Ways to Foster a Culture of Accountability<\/h3>\n

To foster a culture of accountable leadership, organizations need to do 5 things:<\/p>\n

\"Infographic:<\/a><\/p>\n

1. Give support.<\/h4>\n

Employees need support from senior leadership, direct supervisors, and their work teams. Learn to tolerate mistakes and individual differences.<\/p>\n

2. Provide freedom.<\/h4>\n

Give your team the freedom to direct important aspects of the work or to accomplish a goal.<\/p>\n

3. Share information.<\/h4>\n

Employees need access to all information needed to make decisions.<\/p>\n

4. Provide resources.<\/h4>\n

Red tape, tight control, and too-few resources will undermine a sense of ownership and accountable leadership.<\/p>\n

5. Be clear.<\/h4>\n

Clearly communicate the vision<\/a> and goals, responsibilities, and consequences of action or inaction. Who else is involved and what outcomes are expected?<\/p>\n

Creating a Culture of Accountability at Your Organization<\/h2>\n

Build Accountable Leadership By Reducing Fear & Increasing Trust<\/h3>\n

To build accountable leadership across your entire organization, you want to build\u00a0an ownership mentality and culture<\/a>, and to do that, leaders need to remove unnecessary fear.<\/p>\n

When there\u2019s fear, there\u2019s a lack of psychological safety at work<\/a>, and people tend to hide, hold back, and do only the minimum. Fear can generate many other secondary emotions, too, such as aggressiveness, anger, micromanaging, defensiveness, lack of engagement, and victim behavior.<\/p>\n

When team members feel that it\u2019s unsafe to speak up, thoughtful reservations aren\u2019t shared and new ideas aren\u2019t stress-tested, either. To counteract this fear, work to create more psychological safety and build trust, which is critical to team success<\/a>.<\/p>\n

When trust is lost, trust takes a long time to rebuild, so the best advice is to build it consistently over time by showing trust in your team by delegating effectively<\/a>, being competent in the work, knowing when to communicate openly and when to keep things in confidence, and following through on what you say you\u2019ll do.<\/p>\n

In addition, every manager can help to counteract a culture of fear if you:<\/p>\n