That’s a core principle of Sam Silverstein’s methodology and book: “No More Excuses – The Five Accountabilities for Personal and Organizational Growth.” “We are accountable to do the right things consistently.” Sam goes on to explain: “The problem is many managers are great at the strategic level but don’t define the right things that need to be done weekly, daily.”
As we mentioned in our previous post, we run into this all of the time in organizations we work with. Accountability starts at the top but has to trickle down to all levels. As Sam points out, the pathway to accountability is giving people responsibility and authority. So exactly HOW do you do that?
Well, the answer is yet another incentive for taking the time to develop good systems — writing clear policies and standard operating procedures (SOPs).
Accountability is based on being clear about what you expect and giving employees a road map (defining the right actions) for how to achieve the expected result, repeatedly, consistently. Its not fair to expect someone to always do the right thing if they don’t know what the right thing is. Figuring it out on their own is not a strategy. Telling them once may not “stick.”
Micro-managing each and every person that comes and goes isn’t effective and you don’t have time. The way to build a culture of accountability is through good systems and procedures. Sam Silverstein talks about this in another YouTube video: Create Procedures and Systems for Streamlined Growth