The right way to hold people accountable
Accountability is not simply taking the blame when something goes wrong. It’s not a confession. Accountability is about delivering on a commitment. It’s responsibility to an outcome, not just a set of tasks. It’s taking initiative with thoughtful, strategic follow-through. And it’s necessary at all levels of the hierarchy.
How to create a high performance organization
How to create a high performance organization? Actually, it’s SIMPLE
Strong cultures empower their people, they recognize their talents, and give them a very clear role with responsibilities they’re accountable for. It’s amazing how basic this is, but how absent the principle is in many businesses.
How to hold people accountable? How to create a corporate culture of accountability and hold people accountable?
S = Set expectations – The first step is to be crystal clear about what is expected
I = Invite commitment – Buy into the goals
M = Measure progress – Measure their ongoing performance
P = Provide feedback – Honest, open, ongoing feedback is critical
L = Link to consequences – Administering appropriate consequences
E = Evaluate effectiveness – Review how the process has been handled
A SIMPLE approach to high performance organization
These are the building blocks for a culture of accountability. The magic is in the way they work together as a system. If one is missed, accountability will fall through that gap!
Don’t neglect any of the six areas!
The dark side of the performance management
Goals are an integral part of most employee review processes and are commonly tied to pay, rewards and bonuses. However, the potential for goal-setting to enhance performance may come at the cost of ethical behavior.
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A SIMPLE approach to high performance organization — https://www.torbenrick.eu/t/r/eju
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How to hold people accountable? Still sounds directive and is sayed to be down everywhyer. If it’s about culture we should reprase this question to: How to create an environment in which people are holding eachother accountable and themselves (for their own responsibility for results). In an interview for The Ken Blanchard Companies’ Ignite newsletter Fowler recommends “that managers shift their focus from holding people accountable for results to looking at creating the type of environment where people will take on the responsibility for those results themselves”. I strongly agree.
Creating such an environment seems to be the best way to tackle the challenges of inviting to commitment and linking to consequences, which to m seem to be the biggest challenges and whicj could make things less simple to achieve.
Creating the right environment in which everyone can see their contibution can make a real difference is challenging as it needs the right corporate DNA. If the coporate DNA doesn’t foster a culture of accountablity this will only lead to suboptiumal outcomes, lost opportunities and frustration all round. “This little story” and the “SIMPLE” method really gets the message across clearly.
I like the SIMPLE approach to performance. I haven’t seen the acronym before but it makes sense. The story does sound familiar. I have heard it many times and it’s true every time. Another truth is that when everybody is responsible, nobody is responsible.