How to build accountability in your team – and anyone else you speak with

As a leader do you constantly feel that your team misses deadlines or needs reminders to get tasks done?

Do you conduct detailed meetings with ambitious plans only to find that months later the progress bar hasn’t really moved forward?

Does each review lead to new timelines only to have your team tell you why they could not get the task completed yet again?

Accountability is often an inborn trait. Perhaps you yourself are someone who is extremely accountable. So it probably irritates you, even more, when people around you don’t share the same value of getting things done as committed.

But even if someone doesn’t have their accountability muscle as well built like you, there are simple and easy practices that you can implement to make your team more accountable.

Steps to build accountability in your team

1. Own the accountability building process: Not everyone shares your priorities or may understand how important something is to you. Sometimes people need more than instructions to build accountability. Building accountability and holding people to their commitments is your job as their leader. If this is something that has been irritating you for a while you may want to reign in your feelings. It is important to stay objective.
2. Start with yourself: Before you ask others to commit to a task be very clear on what you want. Not every task is equally important or urgent. Having clarity of your own priorities and timelines is important before communicating them to others.
3. Set clear expectations: When communicating the expectations, be specific on requirements, milestones and timelines. Break down big tasks into smaller tasks to be able to visualise the plan better. Ensure that your language communicates the importance and urgency accurately. Sometimes when tasks are way into the future the way we communicate might make people assume that the work is not important.
4. Ask for commitments: A good way to build accountability is to have people commit to their preferred timelines rather than enforcing them. Ask people how much time they need to complete the task. As long as they give you a reasonable commitment allow them to choose what is realistic and feasible for them.
5. Check for accountability: A good way to know how likely your team is to complete the task as committed is to ask them. A good question to ask is:
   1. On a scale of 1-10, how sure are you that you will be able to complete the task as per the commitment.
   2. Anything less than 10 warrants the next question:” What do you need to make it a 10?”
6. Identify and mitigate obstacles: Ask people what could get in the way of their success and help address the hurdles. Basic questions like below could prevent a lot of delays.
   1. What could stop you from achieving this?
   2. What do you need to ensure that you are able to complete this on time?
7. Set a clear tracking and reporting plan: Have one of the team members track the plan, flag possible delays and report progress between the reviews. This ensures that the plan stays on everyone’s mind and does not get lost in the flow of daily transactional priorities. Delegating the responsibility to track progress also builds accountability in the person tracking the plan while freeing up your own time.
8. Anticipate the possibility of misses: Sometimes in spite of the best intentions, teams may still miss timelines. While it is okay to give them leeway occasionally, it is also important to set the expectation that missed commitments cannot continue. Ask them, “What happens if you miss this next time?”. The repercussion could be as simple as the person buying everyone coffee, but knowing there is a repercussion makes people more likely to stay on track.