AN IDEAS INTO ACTION GUIDEBOOK
Accountability
Taking Ownership of Your Responsibility
IDEAS INTO ACTION GUIDEBOOKS
Aimed at managers and executives who are concerned with their own and others’ development, each guidebook in this series gives specific advice on how to complete a developmental task or solve a leadership problem.
| LEAD CONTRIBUTOR | Henry Browning |
| CONTRIBUTORS | Greg Laskow |
| Jennifer Martineau | |
| Jim Shields | |
| Richard Walsh | |
| DIRECTOR OF ASSESSMENTS, TOOLS, AND PUBLICATIONS | Sylvester Taylor |
| MANAGER, PUBLICATION DEVELOPMENT | Peter Scisco |
| EDITOR | Stephen Rush |
| EDITOR | Karen Lewis |
| DESIGN AND LAYOUT | Joanne Ferguson |
| COVER DESIGN | Laura J. Gibson |
| Chris Wilson, 29 & Company |
Copyright © 2012 Center for Creative Leadership.
All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Printed in the United States of America.
CCL No. 451
ISBN No. 978-1-60491-116-9
CENTER FOR CREATIVE LEADERSHIP
AN IDEAS INTO ACTION GUIDEBOOK
Accountability
Taking Ownership of Your Responsibility
Henry Browning
THE IDEAS INTO ACTION GUIDEBOOK SERIES
This series of guidebooks draws on the practical knowledge that the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL®) has generated, since its inception in 1970, through its research and educational activity conducted in partnership with hundreds of thousands of managers and executives. Much of this knowledge is shared—in a way that is distinct from the typical university department, professional association, or consultancy. CCL is not simply a collection of individual experts, although the individual credentials of its staff are impressive; rather it is a community, with its members holding certain principles in common and working together to understand and generate practical responses to today’s leadership and organizational challenges.
The purpose of the series is to provide managers with specific advice on how to complete a developmental task or solve a leadership challenge. In doing that, the series carries out CCL’s mission to advance the understanding, practice, and development of leadership for the benefit of society worldwide. We think you will find the Ideas Into Action Guidebooks an important addition to your leadership toolkit.
Table of Contents
EXECUTIVE BRIEF
More and more organizations are putting in a lot of effort to measure engagement and foster empowerment in order to develop a culture of accountability—taking ownership of projects, processes, and problems that cut across lines of position and formal responsibility. Whereas responsibility is generally delegated by the boss, the organization, or by virtue of position, accountability is having a sense of ownership for the task and the willingness to face the consequences that come with success or failure. The challenge with accountability is that it is intrinsic: it depends entirely on the individual’s—or, in some cases, the team’s—choice to act with greater accountability. There are three levels of commitment that organizations seek from their employees: engagement, empowerment, and, ultimately, accountability. Through this guidebook you will learn how your organization and its leaders can create a culture that fosters accountability by focusing on five areas: support, freedom, information, resources, and goal and role clarity. You will also be able to evaluate individual leaders in your organization in terms of how well they exhibit accountable behaviors and traits. Finally, you will see how to turn around the factor that is the biggest obstacle to accountability—fear in the workplace—and turn it into trust.
Being Accountable
Organizations committed to developing their talent are constantly striving to push their managers to accept greater levels of responsibility. Official responsibility often comes from holding a particular position, but more and more managerial challenges require leaders to take initiative without having full authority for the process or the outcomes—in other words, to be accountable. Organizations spend a great deal of energy measuring engagement and fostering empowerment to develop a culture of accountability. These efforts are all designed to develop people so they can make sound decisions and be willing to stand behind those decisions. Organizations want people to take ownership of projects, processes, and problems that cut across lines of position and formal responsibility. In short, they are asking for higher levels of personal accountability from their employees.
But accountability is often difficult to define for organizations and even more difficult to articulate to those being developed within a talent pipeline. This guidebook is designed to provide a language and practical tools for developing norms and a culture of
