Professional Accountability
Managing Occupational Obligations
Professionalism is easily defined by a person’s ability to manage occupational obligations. An individual’s workplace accountability will ultimately determine their value within an organization. As professionals begin to develop control with the responsibilities of their job, they not only become capable in their work, but also dependable as employees. With employers, especially in team environments, accountability with staff members becomes crucial in obtaining success.
Through The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Lencioni (2002) tells a story of an executive team and how they collectively find success with the aspects of teamwork in the competitive business of technology. This fictional anecdote portrays DecisionTech, a company with a newly acquired CEO, struggling for survival as the executive members receive a crash-course in team dynamics. One of the many lessons learned from this fable is success through professional accountability. Workforce leaders can ensure accountability by utilizing the management techniques of setting goals, reviewing progress, and establishing reward (Lencioni, 2002). “Members of great teams improve their relationships by holding one another accountable, thus demonstrating that they respect each other and have high expectations for one another’s performance” (Lencioni, 2002, p. 213). In a cohesive effort, each person on a team needs to be trusted with their individual responsibilities if they are going to function as a whole.
Setting Goals
Certain behaviors and practices can be expected from a general population of personnel within a company. Yet, there are times when employees lose the direction of purpose in the workplace. However, an employee’s absence of liability may not always be attributed to their own actions, but rather a combination of goal-setting deficiencies amid the company’s leadership and its subordinates.
In The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, the early foundation of any common goals between the members of the executive team is almost nonexistent. As readers continue through the story, they are exposed to the CEO’s unique method of guiding the team into creating company goals and objectives. This is done by allowing the team members to debate company issues and sort out their own conclusion. By the end of the story, the executive team shares a mutual view on how the company is to be managed.
Goals provide employees the visible pathways for accomplishment in the workplace. One way to hold employees accountable is by openly and precisely clarifying what is needed from them, including the expectation of particular behaviors from specific individuals (Lencioni, 2002). Robbins and Hunsaker (2012) support the setting of goals, but also promote attaining commitment stating, “The mere existence of goals is no assurance that employees accept and are committed to them” (p. 140). With goals, there must be agreement between employer and employee that workplace objectives are appropriate and effective with achieving productivity.
For any company, success will be attained when goals are met. Cultivating accountability with clear and well-defined goals in the workplace will yield progressive outcomes. A helpful measure in setting useful goals is making certain they are SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, results-oriented, and time-bound (Employee Accountability, 2013). Companies can only begin to strive towards goals once they have been structured. Understanding the proper management of goals is essential in maintaining accountability, but it is important to remember that goal-setting is only one of the many aspects to preserving accountable workplace employees.
Reviewing Progress
In a business world, success does not come without undergoing varying types of evaluation. Workplace assessment of performance becomes necessary in gauging professional accountability. Plummer (2013) suggests determining accountability within a company should not be subjected to only “objective criteria,” but should include “a blend of quantitative measurement tools and qualitative input from customers and employees to find a successful balance between productivity and customer satisfaction” (para. 5).
Lencioni (2002) explains it is important to provide feedback when holding others accountable and says, “Team members should regularly communicate with one another, either verbally or in written form, about how they feel their teammates are doing against stated objectives and standards” (p. 215). As the story of the DecisionTech CEO and executives unfolds, the team holds meetings to measure the accountability of each member by reviewing the progress on the company’s four focused areas. After the meetings, the executive team gains insight on each member’s level of accountability, but unfortunately for some members, the outcome of the accountability session results in employment resignation. Through observations of the CEO, it was determined that, even though this individuals’ productivity was impressive, their presentation and interpersonal interactions were far from acceptable. The lesson to be learned from this segment of the story is that the efforts of team members are to be beneficial to not only the individual, but to the group as well.
Robbins and Hunsaker (2012) explore the concept of reviewing progress in a more straight-forward, yet detailed approach, and suggest only using either positive or negative feedback in appropriate circumstances. Feedback is the quintessential tool for workforce leaders. The skill of providing feedback provides a manager the pivotal ability to make improvements or create change for employees. This ability helps managers identify accountability and allows them to promote cooperative workplace environments.
Establishing Reward
Accountability can be a sensitive subject for both managers and their employees. Finding positivity in the workplace can often strengthen accountability amongst employees and boost performance as well. As the saying goes; praise in public and punish in private. The U.S. Office of Personal Management proposes recognizing employees for satisfactory work as a way to constructively apply company accountability. (Performance Management, n.d.).
People only exuberate above standard efforts when there is personal or professional gain involved. Lencioni (2002) reveals that to overcome a lack of accountability in the workplace, reward needs to be shifted “away from the individual” and focused on a collective group of employees (p. 215). By the end of the story, DecisionTech’s executive team learns to overcome the dysfunctions that once made the company struggle and ultimately find reward in the new found potential of their team. Robbins and Hunsaker (2012) only briefly discuss reward, explaining that workforce leaders are able to motivate employees by clearly expressing how reward can be obtained. However, many rewarding suggestions can be made in the widely studied topic of accountability. With the convenience of technology, leaders may find positive reactions to employee acclaim in non-traditional mediums such as social media (Plummer, 2013).
Conclusion
The moral of the story in The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable is that a team is only as strong as its weakest member. For both individuals and teams, professional accountability comes from knowing what exactly is expected, monitoring progress, and finding reward. In this process, managers are sure to find success with their career, as long as they are willing to put forth the effort.
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Written By The Strategic Advisor Board - Joe Trujillo
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References
Employee accountability in the workplace. (2013). Retrieved from http://timewellscheduled .com/employee-accountability-in-the-workplace/Lencioni, P. (2002). The five dysfunctions of a team: A leadership fable. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Performance management. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/performance-management/reference-materials/more-topics/accountability-can-have-positive-results/Plummer, B. (2013). Encourage employee accountability. TimeForce. Retrieved from http://www .mytimeforce.com/press/articles/Encourage_Employee_Accountability Robbins, S. P., & Hunsaker, P. L. (2012). Training in interpersonal skills: TIPS for managing people at work (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.
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