Understanding Workplace Accountability
Accountability can be hard to find these days. Whether it's in construction companies or ad agencies, too many people are quick to point fingers at others. What contributes to this mentality? Well, I think there are a lot of factors which I will outline, but at the heart of it is the culture of the company. I have worked at steel construction companies and ad agencies over the last 17 years, and I want to break down my experience seeing accountability or the lack thereof in the workspace.
The SBP Framework: Building Core Values
Number one, company core values are missing and have not been established. With Worker Efficiency, SBP is our mantra which is Skill, Behavior, and Productivity. If your Skill is high but you have a bad attitude and/or are untrustworthy, get out of here. If productivity is low, but your skill is through the roof, you're costing me money on jobs. An employee with an honest and trustworthy mentality will 9 times out of 10 be productive with their time, and a person who is honest and dedicated in behavior will typically strive to improve their skills to improve the quality of their life with pay. So, Behavior is at the top of that leaderboard with skill and productivity trailing. Your company core values and hiring process should be built around behavior. Hire bad actors, reap bad outcomes. Hire great characters, see values improve, and this is what fosters a team environment.
Leadership Lessons from Navy SEALs
Jocko Willink, who was a Navy SEAL, said in SEAL teams they prefer to have someone they completely trust who has slightly lower skills than someone with exceptional skills who they don't trust.
A highly skilled operator who can't be trusted might:
- Not watch their teammate's back
- Make selfish decisions
- Not follow orders in crucial moments
- Compromise team safety
- Break unit integrity
Jocko often uses a matrix to explain this:
High Performance + High Trust = Ideal team member
High Performance + Low Trust = Dangerous liability
Low Performance + High Trust = Can be trained and developed
Low Performance + Low Trust = Must be removed from team
Hiring people based on behavior is difficult though because you don't know them and trust usually comes with time. However, don't let this be your excuse. Watch how they speak to you. Watch how they speak to others, watch how they speak about previous employers.
Implementing Effective Team Assessments
Number two, a lack of self-assessment and team assessments exists. Quarterly reviews are total B.S. because issues that can arise since the last time you talked to an employee can fester and become a real problem. One thing that we built into our app was a daily self-assessment that ranks yourself from 1 to 5 with 3 being average. The questions asked upon clocking out for the day are:
Trust & Leadership: How well did you communicate with others today?
Productivity: Do you feel you were productive in your work today?
Skill & Quality: How was the quality of your work today?
Safety: Were you safe on the job today?
Yeah, yeah, I know what you are going to say, but my guys are constantly giving themselves fives. Well, managers give reviews to their direct reports in the app weekly. If a manager's reviews don't align with the employees' then they are more than likely not being honest. The reviews are designed to help employees really think about what they do and a 5 everyday is a perfect indicator of a don't-care bad attitude. If managers' comments are consistently poor or even negative then you need to talk to your manager about his leadership methods and your employees. It helps you get ahead of problems daily and weekly rather than every 4 months. Clearer and more concise conversations need to take place more often.
Building a Culture of Accountability
In conclusion, accountability in the workplace leads to winning teams and one of the best ways to foster that is by establishing core values with behavior at the forefront and then too have a means of self-assessment in the workplace with appropriate team assessments. You will see a huge decrease in finger pointing and an increase of taking accountability with ownership and a let's-get-better attitude. So, employees who do have great accountability will:
- Always watch their teammate's back
- Make team-focused decisions
- Follow orders precisely in crucial moments
- Prioritize team safety
- Maintain unit integrity
This is a winning team.
If you are interested in checking out our app Worker Efficiency, we have a 30-day trial in the app store. Accountability is something we are building into our app to help not just our team but all teams get better.
