Effective Accountability Requires 200%

“What we really need around here is some accountability.”

Have you ever heard these words? Maybe you’ve spoken them yourself.

If so, you were probably really, really right! But the challenge is that no one wants to be singled out as the one responsible for dropping the ball.

Who’s job is accountability anyways?

In our Leadership-in-a-Box® Accountability program, one of the dynamics we talk about is that accountability actually requires 200%. Instead of 50-50 responsibility, each side needs to take 100% responsibility for three things:

• Clarifying expectations
• Fulfilling agreements
• Ensuring outcomes

50-50 responsibility leaves zero margin for error!

I was right in the middle of sharing this dynamic in a client workshop when one of the team leaders jumped in.

“I’m divorced,” she exclaimed. “I can tell you that 50-50 just doesn’t work!”

I wasn’t quite sure whether to applaud or sympathize, but she was exactly right!

Here’s what this looks like in action. (We call this the Magic Accountability Formula.) Great accountability includes:

• WHO?
• Will do WHAT?
• By WHEN?
• How will we FOLLOW-UP?
• Do we have an AGREEMENT?

When BOTH PARTIES take 100% responsibility to clarify each element, accountability is easy. High performance is the natural outcome.

We’ll explore this even further in my Acing Accountability webinar on Oct 28 at 12pm CST – I hope you can join in!