Remember this model?
The Seven Step Methodology to creating successful change. Look at it again and notice how accountability is at the very end. Every step that comes before it lays the groundwork for the accountability piece.
When you are clear and fully committed to your Defined Dream, your team knows what they are working toward. They internalize the dream personally and are proud of their part in making it come true.
When you Effectively Communicate the dream and every piece of news that impacts how close you are to achieving that dream, your team knows they are a part of something bigger than themselves. They have a meaningful context to place their contribution in.
When you are Keeping Score and measuring how close you are to achieving your key performance objectives, your team knows where the company, and they stand, at all times. You reduce worry and anxiety while providing clear information on where you are going.
When you develop an Action Plan that includes your team they know the route they are going to take to achieve the dream they have now become invested in.
The rest of the model flows from these first four steps:
Team Work happens naturally. When everyone has a vested interested in making the dream of the business a reality personal grudges become second place to a job well done.
Leadership naturally occurs when you have a dream you have communicated to your team, kept track of the objectives and created an action plan for everyone to follow.
Accountability then follows right along. Everyone surrounding you has a vested personal interest in your dream, your vision. They know the score, have been following an action plan, working for something bigger than themselves, and allowed themselves to be inspired by your leadership. So if they make a mistake they know that the dream matters more. They fully trust and understand that it is more important to achieve the goal than hide or cover up a mistake or an accident.
That’s how you get your team to be accountable. By providing and communicating a dream they can invest themselves in, by keeping score so they know how close they are, and by providing an action plan.
Remember, leaders are stewards that faithfully navigate others toward achieving a dream.