With Accountability Comes Results

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By Rand O’Leary

Creating a solid leadership team is not only key for organizational excellence; it’s priceless in a crisis. We are in the midst of extreme, unprecedented times, especially in healthcare, and leaders and managers alike are relying on their teams to help them keep staff focused and engaged, and to make sure their operations are moving forward. To have a team that’s up to the challenges our current circumstances present, however, takes more than just luck, it takes hard work, strategy, and accountability – to each other and to the organizational mission.

As the status quo has gone out the window – at least temporarily – accountability is crucial at every level. However, as Patrick Lencioni writes in The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, a lack of commitment and buy-in can lead team members to develop an avoidance of accountability.  “Without committing to a clear plan of action, even the most focused and driven people often hesitate to call their peers on actions and behaviors that seem counterproductive to the good of the team.”

Accountability means responsible behavior, and each individual taking ownership of their actions and performance. Ultimately, accountability needs to be fully required at every level.

"There’s a crisis of accountability in organizations today, a crisis of epidemic proportions," said Roger Connors, co-founder and former CEO of Partners In Leadership. "When properly approached, accountability can really be the low-hanging fruit for optimizing organizational performance and accelerating organizational change efforts." 

According to Lencioni, ensuring accountability involves peer pressure, because team members will be hesitant to let others down, especially those they respect. That being said, a failure to hold one another accountable can lead to an inattention to results and that, according to Lencioni, leads members to put their individual needs (such as ego, career development, or recognition) or even the needs of their divisions or departments above collective goals. 

In today’s healthcare organization, it’s all hands on deck. To achieve optimal results, you need to build a culture of trust, embrace conflict, and renew organizational commitment and accountability with your leadership team.

Trust is not only essential to growth and success; it is crucial in a crisis. It’s hard for teams to move forward effectively if they don’t trust each other. Instead of innovating, they are second-guessing each other, unnecessarily reworking tasks, or relying on one or two key team members to get the work done. The Workplace Therapist Brandon Smith insists, “Trust enables teams to not just take risks but also to move more quickly. There’s little second-guessing in high trust environments because team members assume there’s positive intent.”  

It's also important to remember that conflict happens, especially in business, and the key is to embrace rather than avoid it. Conflict is not taboo, especially in teams where trust is the norm. In fact, if there is trust in place, conflict won’t lead to heated exchanges but instead can result in a full-scale examination of ideas and resultant decisions that can move your organization forward by leaps and bounds. 

When looking at accountability, it’s also important to look at commitment, or lack thereof. Commitment is a function of two things: clarity and buy-in. With commitment, teams are able to build upon their strengths and tap into a sense of clarity around organizational direction and priorities. In times like this, that means they can move forward without hesitation, and pivot as needed.

As leaders, we are responsible for guiding our organizations through good times and bad, and building a strong leadership team to help do that. By understanding and overcoming the obstacles before us, we can achieve organizational excellence, now and in the years to come.