Creating Accountability Within Your Team
To ensure that a team thrives, leaders must commit to creating an environment of accountability. In this episode, Traci and Rob discuss how you can create accountability within your team by setting clear expectations, providing the right tools, and getting out of the way to let the magic happen.
Transcript
Announcer:
Welcome to the Overly Human Podcast, where we discuss all things human in the workplace. Because it's not just business—it's personal too.
Traci:
Hey, Rob.
I've been thinking a lot about how we get the best out of our teams. How can we be the best versions of ourselves? And it made me start thinking about accountability, which is kind of a hot topic right now. A lot of people are talking about different ways that we can be that trusted team that you and I talk about so often.
And I was thinking about accountability. Oftentimes, we get it a little confused. We talk about it as a verb, but it's actually a noun. It's actually a state of being. It's being answerable to each other, to ourselves and to each other. And the more I think about it and look at it and work with teams, and I'm sure you see this as well at Sparkbox, is that when we are accountable to each other, we actually become the best version of ourselves. Do you find that?
Rob:
I like that a lot. No, I think that's absolutely true. I think that that's such an important part. We say all the time that we're better together than we are part and accountability seems like one of those ways, a tangible way, that we actually make each other better in a way that you can actually measure. And that's one of the really cool things about it, right?
Traci:
Yeah. And I think it's interesting too, to think about that it takes everybody agreeing to be in that state of accountability. I need to agree as a leader that I want to be held accountable, that I want you to hold me accountable, because I want to be the best version of myself. And then I want my coworkers to also feel that way. It's a conscious choice that we're making.
Now as leaders, we have to create the environment where that can happen, right? And it always starts exactly where you and I go almost every single podcast, which is trust. And if you have an environment where you can trust each other, then it's easier to create an environment where accountable people can thrive. And non-accountable people, the people who don't buy into this concept who even hate listening to this podcast right now, because they hate that feeling of being held accountable, those people will leave your environment because it's not a comfortable, cozy place for them to exist. And that's how we create an environment that thrives.
Rob:
Yeah. And I think that demonstrating accountability starts with doing the things you say you're going to do, right? It's that trust, right? And I think that's a really important thing for leaders. And as we think about team members is, accountability for your actions and words specifically.
And I think about that a lot, is am I able to carry out the things that I'm saying that I'm going to do? And if not, can I provide reasons why? And if I say something in front of my team, it's my responsibility then to make sure if something changes, they know why and how. Because otherwise, trust as you point out, can’t exist.
Traci:
Right. And we can't expect to hold people that we lead accountable when we haven't created an environment where they can thrive, right? And that's the environment we create through what you're talking about, the clear expectations, the clear communication, the measuring—whether it's measuring performance or measuring core values—or the health of our team, providing the right tools, all of these things that we need to do to create the right environment.
But if we do provide all of those things, then we are going to see people pretty clearly. We're going to pretty clearly be able to identify the people that can be held accountable and liked to be held accountable. And we're going to pretty quickly see the people who don't.
Rob:
Yeah. And that's half the game is setting the environment up to attract the right people that are culture adds and that do good things and that will exist and agree to your values. And then making sure that the people who don't prescribe to those aren't interested in being there.
Traci:
Right.
Rob:
Right? And it's so much of the example in the lead that we have to be able to take with these things.
The other thing that I'm just sitting here thinking about from a leadership perspective, and I know we talked about partnerships a couple episodes back, is what a benefit it is to have a good business partner in this search for accountability. Because it would be so much harder if you were a single leader sitting on top of an organization.
Traci:
Yeah. Well, if you're a single leader sitting on top of an organization, then you literally have to turn to those people around you, your leadership team, or people that you trust within the organization and ask yourself and ask them, "What expectations do people have of me, and am I meeting those expectations they have? If they're fair and right expectations, do I recognize them and do I meet them? And if I don't, am I admitting I'm missing the mark? Am I fixing it?” So that's a communication loop, right?
Oftentimes, when we talk about check-ins or feedback or whatever, we think about the leader doing it with those that report up to them. But I think of it as a loop, right? So I'm asking you how you're doing and I'm checking in and I'm looking at your goals and seeing how you're doing. But then I am asking you, I never let a feedback session end without asking the person who works with me or for me, "How am I doing? Am I meeting your expectations? Is there something that I'm doing wrong?" The best leaders do that. But sadly, a good chunk of leaders don't. They don't. It's a hard thing to hear and feel and do.
Rob:
It's a hard question to ask for that, and it gets back to the environment and the trust. And because there is a power dynamic there between a leader at the top and the next level down and asking that question, there has to be trust and a certain level of relationship to even get good feedback that still may be watered down in some situations, if it's really hard.
So one of the things that I'm constantly thinking is when I ask those kinds of questions is, am I getting all of the feedback? Am I getting parts of the feedback? What is this person trying to say, but maybe not saying as strongly as I wish they would? And trying to interpret that because that power dynamic, as we've talked about so many times, it exists. I know what's there.
Traci:
Yeah. And I think one of the things I find comforting about doing it as a leader is that I'm not guessing. Sometimes it's scary as a leader to lead a group of people and not know how they really feel about you, or if they're whispering behind your back or if you walk in the room and they stop talking. It's awkward and some leaders just avoid it because they just don't want to ask the question, they don't want to confront it. And they've risen to a level that's very comfortable and they feel a bit untouchable. And so they're just going to go forth and not engage.
For me, I always wanted to know, I want to know, is there something I need to fix? Is there something that is a little off base? Because most of the time they're easy fixes, but then I feel super comfortable coming into the office and going to work. And I know, if I'm missing the mark or not, and I don't have to guess or feel a little on edge about my own job performance.
Rob:
Maybe if you're listening out there, I guarantee if you are a leader of people, they’re talking about you. Leave no mistake about it. And the tools that we have today with Slack and other kinds of chat, especially in this current environment where there's more remoteness than ever, distributed teams, your teams are talking. And I guarantee there are things they want you to fix or do better. You may or may not be hearing about it, but those conversations are taking place. That's just all there is to it.
Traci:
Yeah. And the interesting thing, I have a few things—I kind of jotted down— about how to create an environment of accountability. And what's interesting is if you do these few things to create an environment of accountability, you actually are solving—I'm guessing—a good 90% of any issue they're going to have with you as a leader. Right?
So the first thing is creating clear expectations, clear direction. Clarity is kind, we've said that before, it was a Brené Brown quote that I love. And if people know what is expected of them, they know what their responsibilities are, their job description, they know what their goals are, they know what the core values are. They know what the project expectations are and the part they play in the project and the due dates. All these things are clear then that is setting up everybody to succeed. Right?
Rob:
Yeah.
Traci:
So there's no ambiguity.
And one of the biggest complaints we hear about leaders is that they're not clear. “Things are too muddy, there's too much ambiguity. I don't know, what's expected of me. They never stick to the goal at hand. They don't adhere to the core values, but they expect everybody else to.” These are the complaints we hear. And it's funny how we can solve so much just with clarity, clear communication, clear expectations.
Rob:
I totally agree. And I think that's the name of the game is saying things until they're communicated clearly and that both of you agree on the same thing, right? I'm constantly talking to even my kids about like, "Well, I told you, no, no, no. You might've said words that you interpreted that way. But if we don't have the same understanding, we did not clearly communicate about this and we need to do it until we both have that same understanding."
And I think that's such a huge piece of expectations because expectations only work before. Right? You have to be able to say before you're going to measure what those things are, and if you don't, then you're stuck with whatever the output is, and it's usually your fault, the person who has those expectations, and the expectations that we all carry around with us.
I always like to remind my team that, I think I've said this before, I like having lots of autonomy and I like to give people autonomy. And one of the ways that I think we can do that is by clearly setting expectations beforehand and saying, "This is what you need to do and this is when you need to do it by," instead of saying, "Well, this is who's going to micromanage you the entire way you do it."
Traci:
Yes.
Rob:
Because for me, that is my own personal version of hell, is being micromanaged and somebody watching over my shoulder. So I think it's so much better to say "No, tell me what you expect. Tell me what the outcomes are and let me figure out. And if I need advice, I'll come back."
Traci:
Right. And it's like if you feel like you have to micromanage somebody, then you've made a hiring mistake. Jim Collins says that in Good to Great, right? The moment you feel like you're tightly managing somebody, you've made a hiring mistake. You shouldn't need to micromanage anybody. If they're trained properly, they have the clear expectations, then they need to be led, they might need to be taught, they might need to be guided or mentored, but they don't need to be micromanaged. Right?
So to your point, yeah, this whole accountability thing is a great litmus test for yourself as a leader. Do you have this tendency to micromanage, right? And that's one of the things on my list here about getting out of the way. You, as a leader, need to give the clear expectations, give them the responsibility and get out of the way. That's where trust takes place. And if they can't rise to the occasion, then maybe they're in the wrong seat or they're just on the wrong bus and they need to find another place to go.
Rob:
Is that your second thing on your list?
Traci:
My second thing actually is provide the right tools. So you can give them all the expectations in the world and all the clarity of what you expect from them, but if you haven't given them the right tools, the resources, training, technology, good team around them, the time that they need to complete something, the attention they need—whether it's from the client or from the other people on the staff that they need to get a project done—then you're also setting them up to fail. Right? So they need to know what's expected of them and they need to have the right tools. And then the last thing is to get out of the way.
Because as you were saying before, you can't give somebody the responsibility and not the authority over the project, or over their own domain. You can't have one without the other.
Rob:
That's the conversation I end up having a lot is somebody will show up in my office and say, "Well, I'm ready for more responsibility." And for me, the idea of responsibility, accountability, they're one in one, they go together.
And that's always my first question is, "Okay, you'd like more responsibility over what area and how would that work?" They're always really quick to tell me about how they can take the responsibility. And then my second question always is, is, "Okay, perfect. Where's the accountability side? How are we going to measure success? What are the expectations? If you're going to have responsibility over this, how will both of us know that you've done what you're supposed to do with it? How are we going to measure this?" And that's usually where I get a blank stare sometimes, not all the time.
Then it's like, okay, well, part of this is you can't have responsibility over things unless we agree on those clear expectations that you have what you need and that I can get out of the way and you can come back later and we can know if you've done the things we've agreed that you're going to do.
And then it's always like, "Oh, how do we get there?" I'm like, "Well, we don't start with everything. We start with a piece of it. We start with a small piece of new responsibility, with a little bit of accountability." And over time, those things can grow if they continue to go well. And if they don't, then we keep working, we keep providing more tools and coaching and things until we get that piece right. It's levels. You unlock more responsibility with more accountability as you pass those gates.
Traci:
Yeah. And there's so much fairness in that. I feel like it's a fair working environment. I like working environments where, when I'm given all the right tools and the clear expectations that I know there's a progression for me. I know that somebody is keeping an eye on my progress and seeing if I can take on more responsibility and the path is clear. There's not all this guessing on if you're actually care about if I'm doing a good job or not. If there's actually more opportunity around the corner.
I like that you're sort of laying out like, look, let's get here first. And if things go well, then we're going to go the next step. And I think there's just so much, just safety and like I said before, just a fairness to that set up and people can thrive in that.
But it's the type of person that thrives in that are the kind of people you want working for you. The people that feel restrained by that are the people who feel like, "Oh my gosh, you're watching everything I do or you have to have measureables or whatever," those are the people that are really saying to you, "I don't want you to measure me. I don't want to really be held accountable. I want agency and freedom and to do whatever I want to do." And it's like, yes, we want to give people agency and we want to give them freedom within their role and within projects because that's to be able to innovate and to be creative. But we also want people that want to know where they stand, that want a measure of success, who want to know that they've done the best that they could possibly do and have somebody, a leader, who is always raising the bar for them.
Rob:
Yeah. Some of the best performers I've ever worked with and ever employed have been the people who crave feedback. People who want it and need it and insist upon it.
Traci:
Yeah.
Rob:
And those people are constantly looking to get better looking for those opportunities. And I think it's one of those things, I think we talked about this in a way earlier episode about reviews and all of that and how I was kind of resistant to for a while. But it's become a great tool for us and to give people that feedback and to know when we're going to measure it and to know and have those expectations and that accountability.
And I think those are indicators of a high performing person, when they crave both praise and critical feedback, so they can determine what the right things they've done and also where there's room for improvement. And that's become a thing to me, it's like when somebody constantly is asking for feedback, I'm like, "Oh, this is really cool." This is that whole thing that you always hear in sports, coachability. You're really coachable.
Traci:
Yes. And then I think to move it from the individual, because we've talked a lot about taking ownership of this as an individual and as a leader and push that out to the team level. To have a high performing team, we want a team that thinks of themselves as a team that craves accountability, right?
A team that's answerable to each other, that's beyond just the leader and the person that reports to them. Right? We're talking peers, as a team as a whole. And a team that's able to sit in a room and look at a project or look at their performance as a team on core values or whatever, and say, "That's not good enough, we could be better," is a really healthy team. They're able to push back. It's hard, but it's healthy.
Rob:
It's really hard. But I think that if you don't have it, you end up with those individual goals possibly taking over team dynamics where they don't make sense. I think it's so important for you to be able to help, especially on people who have different roles or concerns within your organization. Those goals almost become a binding contract of behavior between them that allows them to be able to point to something, to agree on how to proceed. And I think that's so important.
And I love that idea so much from a perspective of okay, for our delivery organization at Sparkbox, we're like, "Okay, here's some goals. Here's the top three things you need to do as an organization." There's several leaders over there, but that allows them to have common language and to work together, to achieve those goals.
And we actually started doing that on projects is when we start a project, we actually write an internal charter, both with client goals to make sure we have those documented, because those are always important, but also our internal goals. And those become the rubric for how we can make decisions when there is differing ideas or conflicts. We can go back to that accountability that we set up at the beginning and be like, "Well, no, no, we agreed this was how we were going to make decisions here or what the main goal was or internal goal," and that can become help drive the output, and actually, intercept conflict before it happens.
Traci:
Yeah. We always say it's healthy conflict that gets us there. It's interesting that you're saying it can even prevent having to get into conflict. When you have these tools and you're sort of setting up for this healthy feedback, it doesn't feel like you have to enter into a healthy conflict.
I mean, you always want there to be an environment where that can happen, and you're able to call your baby ugly in certain areas and improve upon it. I think that takes a team that again, has high trust for each other and knows that things aren't perfect, and what we want to do is improve upon that.
And what we've found, I mean, we go into teams every day of the week, that's what we do. And we're looking for the pain points and we see that the best teams, the best teams that have the strongest health, but the teams that have the highest profitability are the teams that have figured this out. They have figured out accountability. Because you can figure out a lot of things, but if you don't hold each other accountable and you don't have an environment of accountability, it's really hard to knock the ball out of the park every day.
Rob:
Yeah. That makes a lot of sense.
So just to recap, you've got three things that you look for in creating accountable environments. It’s clear expectations, provide the right tools, and then get out of the way and let the magic happen.
Traci:
Yep. That's right.
Rob:
That's awesome Traci.
Traci:
That's right. And don't forget, leaders and owners that are listening to this, look in the mirror first. Be sure you're looking at yourself and nobody wants to be answerable if the leader isn't open and willing to be answerable themselves.
Rob:
Yeah. Thanks.
Traci:
Thank you. Until next time.
Announcer:
This podcast would not be possible without the amazing communications team at Sparkbox. If you like what you've heard, please subscribe and tell your friends to listen as well. The Overly Human podcast is brought to you by Navigate the Journey and Sparkbox. For more information on this podcast, or to get in touch with Traci or Rob, go to overlyhuman.com. Thanks for listening.
