What Does Leadership Accountability Look Like?

What Does Leadership Accountability Look Like?

Leaders of a team are particularly responsible for demonstrating a culture of accountability, because without proper leadership and honesty, factual information will not be transferred. The proper leader is vital for a functioning business—the leader can make or break a business. Leaders set an example for the employees as a role model. Employees look to the leader for direction. An inappropriate presentation of authority will produce a bad team. Integral information is necessary in deciding how to progress. So, the leader is accountable for the team’s actions. This makes leaders, especially, answerable. Some tips for leaders of a team to exercise accountability are:

Be Clear with Expectations

Defining and clarifying the roles of each of the teammates and what they are expected to achieve prevents confusion. Distributing roles to each member also makes clear what is expected of each individual teammate. This safeguards members and that they are not responsible for each and everyone else’s roles. For example, if one particular employee is especially good with communicating, he or she may be successful at managing other employees.

Work on Giving Feedback

Leaders of a team are expected to give feedback. They are responsible for directing the team and correcting employees who need the help. Not giving feedback is one of the most discouraging things a leader could do to his or her employees. This sends them the message that the leader does not care about them or their work. Being ignored is worse than receiving negative criticism. When employees are used to receiving feedback on their work, receiving tough feedback is much easier for them. Good feedback shows the employees that the leader does sincerely care and wants to help. Also, be clear. Messages should be delivered accurately and not vaguely.

Set Landmarks

A culture of accountability can be shared amongst everyone in a team when the leader sets milestones. The entire time will feel obligated and will want to deliver the goals and stay dedicated. Praise those who meet their goals. Even the littlest of recognition can go far—in turn, motivating employees and feeding their drive to succeed. If there is a lack in consistency of accountability, implement SMART goals. SMART stands for:

S – Specific

M –Measurable

A –Attainable

R –Relevant

T –Timely.

Goals should be practical and specified clearly. Have reasonable expectations of employees and dictate appropriately. Analyze and track the results to project for the future. Tracking progress to stay motivated keeps the morale of the workplace. Keep the relevance of the goal, retain control and make sure that it measures with other goals. A clear message of what is to be set forth is done by keeping track of time and making an agenda. Whether keeping track of what needs to be done by the hour, day, month, the upcoming six months, or year, gives everyone a clear idea of what is expected of them and how fast they have to work in order to effectively produce results. Setting SMART goals allow fluent communication between the leader and the team about what is expected of employees.

Be a Role Model

Each individual employee is empowered with a responsibility when supervisors ration out roles to each employee. They learn with experience, through failures and successes. Each experience is a learning experience, whether gaining an insight or learning what went wrong and how to prevent that situation from reoccurring. In a successful organization, each team member will be held accountable for learning from his or her record. This way, they identify and analyze these results to influence future predictions of projects.