Prepare Your Leadership: Accountability

Hello. Give it a couple minutes here. Wait for people to join here on this Monday now afternoon, June 24. Give it about a minute here. Hope everyone had a great weekend and enjoyed it. Okay, we'll get started here. As you can guess by the title, we're talking about accountability. This is really a fundamental concept that has been at the base of success in society, personal and professional areas. So what is it? Why does it matter? So, yeah, let's dive into it. So according to research, accountability in the early two thousands has been found to serve as a critical link between individuals, their behavior, and societal norms.

It reminds us of our duties and our responsibilities to comply with societal expectations, but then also justifies deviations from these norms. As you know, society has changed and evolved over the years as we learn about kind of the responsibilities of people and the accountability. And as things change, accountability changes as well. So it's been found to be the adhesive bind in our social systems together. Now, when you look at it in an organizational setting, it kind of sounds like a buzzword now because it's been overused and probably so much used before that people don't really look at it anymore.

But it's been found to be the cornerstone of our effectiveness. It clarifies expectations for your job. Hi, Jules. How's it going? Hope you had a good weekend. We're just talking about accountability here and in organizations, it's been found to be a cornerstone for organizational effectiveness. Accountability clarifies our expectations. Knowing what you're accountable for is important for your job. So you know what you're supposed to be doing, what your responsibilities are. If you need to improve, if you're doing it right or wrong, enhances job satisfaction.

Imagine if we didn't, if we weren't accountable for some things. Sure. People would love to not be accountable. Good week. That's good. I hope it was, it was dry. I was in Minnesota. It was very, very wet and kind of had to stay inside for most of it. But, yeah, I'm sure if you weren't accountable for something, you probably loved that. Jules, if you. If you lost and if you weren't responsible or accountable for something, wouldn't that be awesome? You have nothing to worry about. It might be fun for a little bit, but after a while you kind of feel like you're not doing anything.

And then it also drives performance as well. Knowing what you need to get better at, using it as a motivator. Some research has been found that if you are going to be publicly held accountable, you would work harder and you would be more conscientious about your work. So you knew because you knew you were going to be publicly examined. Yeah. Good. Northern Minnesota, same here. But I'm in Duluth. Maybe it just rained a lot more, but yeah. And then looking at the difference between accountability and responsibility, they sound very similar and often are used interchangeably.

But accountability is taking ownership of your responsibilities. So you're given responsibilities, but being accountable for them is taking ownership and accepting those responsibilities. But accountability isn't always a good thing, as you can guess. Being held accountable kind of can stress you out, can make you nervous for some things. It's been found to relate to emotional exhaustion, which is kind of the precursor to burnout. So the more you held accountable, the more emotionally taxing it is to have these high expectations.

So it's really a balancing act between the trust and being able to perform and managing those pressures with it. It's been kind of like an inverted you where the more you're held accountable, the less your performance is. And the less you're held accountable, the worse your performance is. In research, they call this the Goldilocks measure, because it can't be too little, it can't be too much. It's got to be just right. It's got to be in the middle. And you got to find that sweet spot for holding people accountable or holding yourself accountable where you're not putting too much pressure or expectations on you.

Kind of find that right amount of accountability that still pushes you, but not makes you nervous. Now, looking at accountability, there's two primary forms of it. There is self benefiting and other benefiting. Self benefiting accountability focuses on personal gains and attributions, while other benefiting accountability enhances the collective benefits. Internal attributions. So kind of a lot. But self benefiting is when crap hits the fan. Are you going to take responsibility or are you going to pass it off?

Self benefiting says, oh, that's the other people's fault. That's not my fault. Losing that, passing off the accountability to somebody else for why it went wrong, while other benefiting is as a leader, you could, when you failed on something saying, oh, that was on me, team, I need to be better, I need to lead better. But really taking that accountability. But then when stuff goes right, self benefiting, you take all the accountability for that. Oh, that was me that did well on that. That wasn't the team, that was mostly me.

While other benefiting pass that off and say, oh, our team was great as a team, we did well. So self benefiting is very selfish, and research indicates that people who exhibit other benefit and accountability. So this is that idea of when you do well, it's the team. And when stuff goes wrong, taking that accountability, this can create more team effectiveness and more trust in the team. And this is more of a collective mindset, and it's good for relationships, the cohesion in the organization as well as success.

So looking at it, accountability, one way that you can kind of reflect on how you've taken your accountability, taking the responsibilities, have you accepted it? Have you been accountable for things would be kind of journaling or taking time to reflect. Take a few moments to reflect on your actions and decisions. When you were in a situation that involved accountability, identify at least, at least an instance where you had accountability. Think about the situation where you felt responsible for your outcome.

Hi, Jocelyn. Just wrapping up, talking about an example about how you can discover how you've taken accountability or not. So reflect or journal about an instance where you were accountable for something. Think of a situation, consider a time of when you were accountable, and then ask yourself, how did I respond to the accountability placed upon me? Did I take that ownership of my actions and decisions, and did my response affect others or the outcomes, and how did it affect them? Did you take the other, the other benefiting accountability, where when something went wrong, you blamed others?

When something went. No, when something went wrong, you blamed, you took accountability for that. But when something went right, you placed that accountability on the whole team. The whole team was the driver for success. Or did you take that self other self benefiting accountability where you really were more selfish with it and passed off the accountability when something went wrong and took all the tuck, all the praises for the success. So which way did you go and what did you learn from that and how can you improve better in the future?

So one thing just to take away with accountability is to think about it and where you place it. Am I taking accountable for my responsibilities? Am I accepting them? Am I transparent about my accountability? And when I am accountable, am I other benefiting or self benefiting? Other benefiting, again, is when something goes right, it was the team. And when something goes wrong, it's taking accountability for that and your responsibilities and self benefiting. When something goes right, saying it was all me, I'm the best.

When something goes wrong, blaming everyone else and that other benefiting. So being more part of the team that has been found to be more effective in work settings and in any team setting. So that is accountability. Quick rundown of it. And remember, kind of reflect on how you've taken accountability in your life. Stay here. We got JC on in about 20 minutes. And you can check the whole calendar out on the Cadre app. Just click the little calendar icon. Hope you have a rest. A good.