Accountability

I’ve been thinking a ton lately about “holding someone accountable”.  What does that even mean?

• Nagging (did you do it?  is it done?)
• Public shaming (making sure everyone knows this person messed up)
• Loss of money (no bonus, etc)
• Loss of responsibility (you get one shot at this job only)
• Loss of job (you get one shot at this company only)

I’m sure there are other things people have decided on how to hold someone accountable – maybe even positive ones that I didn’t think about.  I guess my thought is…can you hold someone accountable?  Or is this an internal driven concept only?

Meaning as a leader, what if you changed your mindset from “holding them accountable” to “helping create an environment where they want to hold themselves accountable”.   Now for some people this is just semantics but not for me.  The difference is in the ownership.

If someone doesn’t want to own something, nothing I threaten or promise would create accountability.  If I do nothing, I’m enabling someone to be in a job that they shouldn’t be.  Or worse, I’m forcing something to continue when people don’t find value in it.  How is that helping anything?

What if leaders stopped worrying about how to hold people accountable but worried about how to create an environment of ownership?