Accountability in Leadership: Building it into your Culture
Leadership accountability can often be overlooked when we’re aiming to create and build a strong and healthy workplace culture. Not only does leadership accountability mean leaders’ take responsibility for their actions, good or bad, but it also means that they follow through on their words with action. How often are empty promises made within a business environment, and how often does it affect satisfaction and lead to a compromised workplace culture?
Leadership accountability is, of course, the responsibility of the leader to maintain, but accountability in leadership can also be affected by the structure of an organisation, the operations of it, and the willingness to invest in it from the business as a whole.
Why is accountability within your leadership important?
Accountability in leadership has so many benefits, from creating a trusting and healthy workplace environment to maximising performance and success. However, only 49% of organisational leaders are actually seen as accountable. This can have detrimental effects on the confidence teams and employees’ have in their leaders, but also in how accountable they are as a result.
Some benefits of accountable leadership include:
It creates a culture of responsibility
Your leaders set the tone for the rest of the business – they are there to set precedents and lead by example. If that involves holding themselves accountable and taking ownership, there is far higher likelihood those in junior positions will follow suit. This means one catalyst, a leader acting accountable and taking responsibility, can have a huge effect on cultivating a culture of responsibility at work.
It can enhance leadership decisions
As leaders hold themselves accountable, they recognise that they will be held responsible for their actions. That means that choices and decisions are far more likely to be strategically thought through, improving the outcomes significantly versus a quick, rash decision.
It builds trust
Leadership and accountability go hand in hand with a trusting environment. Being open and transparent in a position of leadership cultivates trust. If you’re open and transparent, and willing to take responsibility for decisions, it provides a trusting environment for employees and builds confidence towards leaders as well as strengthening relationships.
It aligns people
When leaders show accountability, it often comes with clear expectations for their team members. Without this, people can often become misaligned, and outcomes aren’t reached as a result.
It improves satisfaction and therefore engagement
In a healthy workplace environment built on trust and confidence, employees are far more likely to be satisfied within their role and therefore more engaged, which of course can have beneficial effects on performance.
It attracts top talent and retains it
A culture of accountability not only has real positive effects on employee satisfaction, but also on retention. Those high retention rates combined with strong satisfaction and engagement is what is really going to attract top talent to your company and keep them there. Recruiting top talent into a company is effectively going to bolster productivity and results.
It causes productivity shifts
Holding oneself to account means understanding that if things go wrong, you’re responsible for fixing issues or explaining situations. As a result, individuals (by nature) are far more likely to put in the effort to avoid these situations, and that’s where productivity shifts. This is not only the case for leaders showing accountability, but also team members inspired to do the same. As a result, productivity is shifted at scale, and results often follow.
Organisational resilience is built
Accountable leadership means inevitable setbacks or disappointments. But this allows your leaders to learn and grow from these setbacks, setting them up for success in leading through change or adversity within a business.
Being accountable in leadership: what does it actually mean?
Being accountable in leadership means taking ownership of outcomes. But how do you put this into practice?
Encouraging your leaders to set an example. This means ensuring they are taking ownership, are open and honest within the organisation, and actively encourage a culture of accountability within teams.
Ensuring your leaders are trustworthy, and actively look to build that trust. This means encouraging their transparency or holding them accountable for not being accountable themselves – if you see them not going through with promises, it should be flagged.
Leadership accountability involves not only being accountable for yourself, but also inspiring others to do the same. Accountability as a leadership quality involves being:
Communicative: What do you expect both responsibilities wise and performance wise. What are you working on, undertaking.
Delegative: Why? When people feel accountable for their actions through autonomy, they’ll likely take ownership of them. This fosters that culture of accountability within the wider team, and aids in boosting performance as a result.
Provide support: Without support and constructive feedback, individuals aren’t likely to stick themselves out with accountability. So, both encouraging leaders to provide constant support and feedback, as well as providing that to them is key.
Building an accountable leadership model into your culture
To ensure that accountable leadership thrives in your business, investing time into cultivating it is key. And that’s where coaching can help.
Leadership coaching can help leaders become more comfortable and less fearful in being accountable for their decisions, as well as building confidence in their decision making to help aid this process. Building emotional intelligence within leaders through coaching can also help boost self-awareness and dependability.
At EZRA, our coaches can help you achieve a culture of accountable leadership, with personalised coaching for each leader.