Team management is no easy job. Their success is your success, but the same goes for their failure. In order to make sure they do the job up to your expectations, without micromanaging them, you have to make them accountable for what they do. 

By definition, accountability is an assurance that an individual or an organization will be evaluated on their performance or behavior related to something for which they are responsible.

The accountable team is a team who’s reliable with their work, and who accounts for the consequences of their decisions when working on a task. 

Research conducted by Tel Aviv University finds that employees who feel powerful in their position are 26% more satisfied with their jobs. Furthermore, the University of Illinois research finds that frontline employees are more committed to improving their company when feeling they have a high degree of autonomy in their jobs.

So, what happens when there’s no accountability?

Once a problem or error is encountered, team members start throwing the blame like a ball between each other. In order to make a team work like one, you have to demand them to take responsibility for their work. 

If you want your employees to be accountable, you need responsible hard-workers.

Picking the right people starts at a job interview. Ask possible candidates questions about a specific situation where they could’ve demonstrated accountable behaviors. Ask something like: “What did you do to resolve the issue? What would you do differently if you encounter such a situation again?” How did they respond? Did they take responsibility for the outcomes, or blamed others?

A true manager is shown by their delegation skills. Assign your employees to a specific task with clear expectations of its deliverance, and explain to them what their role in it is, and how it all fits into the big picture. 

Make sure to always assign the right person responsible for a specific task. 

Holding a sole person responsible for certain job means you have whom to address if something goes wrong. 

Clarity is the core of accountability. You’re making your team aware of their accountability by telling them what you expect from the end results. They function best when they have clearly outlined plan with reasonable objectives. Make sure they know:

 - Project budget

 - Deliverables

 - Deadlines

The more specific you are, the less confusion might occur about your expectations. For example, it’s not enough to say you want a better social media presence. That sentence doesn’t tell your workers much. A clear, specific expectation would be: “I want to double our content posts on every platform we use.”

Set clear goals, by using a SMART model. This stands for: 

Specific – Define well, clearly and unambiguous; Ask yourself 5 W questions: Who, What, Where, When and Why

Measurable – Break your goal into measurable, concrete elements

Attainable – Ask yourself is that goal achievable

Relevant – Is the goal realistic and relevant to your life purpose

Timely – Does it have a clearly defined timeline?

Consider involving your employees in the process of creating goals. Since they’ll be working towards achieving them, it’s good to take their input right from the start.

Peter Drucker, management expert said: “What gets measured gets improved.” Time tracker helps employees stay responsible for how they spend their time. After all, one of the automatic time tracking main purposes is to ensure employee accountability. This also boosts their productivity, as they’re focusing on that specific task. With team time tracking, you’re always aware of what your employees are working on and if they’re devoting enough time to a certain project, but also you need to step in and help them improve their workflow. 

Beyond accountability, staff time tracker helps you with payroll calculation and improved organization, and it saves you a lot of time.

Checking up on your employees to see if they’re performing as expected doesn’t need to be time-consuming. Make it a standard for your employees to follow up with you after a certain period of time. This way you’re helping your team members stay on track.  

Your work doesn’t end there. To keep team communication transparent, you need to provide regular feedback. The most optimal frequency would be on a weekly basis. That’s enough time for your team members to do their tasks, and it’s still soon enough for you to make an impact and step in when needed. That’s why longer feedback intervals aren’t suggested. A lot can happen in a month, and especially in a year. Annual reviews should be a thing of the past. They’re way too late to change anything. You could combine your regular feedback into one, yearly report that will show performance trends over time.

You’ll need to work constantly on your feedback skills. That’s one of your job roles as a manager, as you’re here to make your employees get the best they can be at their jobs. A time will come for negative feedback, surely, and that’s not easy to give. But, you’ll get better in time. A negative assessment can be as useful as a positive one, when delivered properly. 

Don’t forget the impact of positive feedback either. It fuels your employees’ spirit and motivates them to work harder and achieve even better results. Make use of that energy and engage your employees’ full focus.

The importance of this step is somewhat logical. Your employees are giving their blood, sweat, and tears into a specific project, and they’re being accounted for, therefore they should know the end results. That goes for both positive and negative ones. You’re systematically reviewing their progress towards the company’s goals, and here’s important to address what worked well and what has yet to be improved. Address all deficiencies and ask the employee how it can be corrected. If their answer isn’t up to your expectations, coach them. Your job is to help them develop their skills and achieve goals. In the end, their failure is your failure, as their manager.

It sounds like a cliché, I know, but it’s true. I might as well cite Gandhi “Be the change you want to see in the world.” The point is still clear though. If you want your employees to own up to their work, which also means taking responsibility for their mistakes, you should do the same.

The culture of accountability doesn’t fall from the sky. It takes time and practice, but looking at the end results, it’s worth it.