Scaling Up Depends on Individuals Taking Ownership for Their Actions – Discover Easy Ways to Encourage Them to Keep Their Commitments

Scaling Up requires that people throughout your organization get things done – on their own, without being nagged, reminded or babysat. You need them to be responsible and accountable for their actions, behaviors, performance, and decisions. The success of your team depends on each individual’s commitment, responsibility, and ownership of their work. 

And it’s not just within Scaling Up that accountability is important. According to leadership experts such as Patrick Lencioni, Thomas Kayser, and John Maxwell, accountability – being obligated or willing to accept responsibility or to account for one’s actions – is a key trait of top-performing teams. 

Here are 7 tips to help amp up ownership throughout your company as you implement Scaling Up. 

What Is Accountability? 

Accountability is often interchanged with responsibility and authority. But these business terms have clear distinctions in the Scaling Up world. 

• Accountability belongs to a single individual – the one person who has the “ability to count.” This person tracks the progress of a particular task, team, function, or division. When issues arise, that person is the one who raises the red flag and becomes the squeaky wheel to ensure that issues are addressed.
  
  Important to note: Only one person should be accountable. If more than one person is accountable, no one is accountable, and things will fall through the cracks more easily. 

• Responsibility is literally the “ability to respond.” Everyone who touches a particular process or issue bears responsibility to proactively support the team.  
• Authority is the final decision-making power and may belong to a person or a team. 

As you can see, what most leadership experts would describe as “accountability” is really what we in Scaling Up call “responsibility.” Every individual needs to be responsible for their actions and doing what they can to support the team and its goals. Accountability may or may not belong to the same person who is responsible for the results. 

Regardless of what you call it, you want individuals to keep their commitments – and to do it without needing to be checked up on.  

Why Some People Resist “Accountability” 

“Accountability” in the broad sense of the word can create a level of resistance. You’ve probably heard about creating a “culture of accountability” or using “accountability partners” to “hold people accountable.” There’s an implied threat of punishment or shaming – that you’ll be called out, possibly in a public way, for not keeping your commitments. 

This fear-based approach works for some people. For others, it causes them to shy away from making any commitment unless they are absolutely sure they can achieve it. With the projects and tasks associated with Scaling Up so often being unusual and outside of the normal day-to-day operations, you don’t want individuals to hold back in favor of playing it safe. Instead, strive to create a culture of encouragement and support.  

Ways to Encourage Employees to Take Responsibility and Ownership 

“A” Players love knowing what is expected of them, so they can smash expectations. You’ll find that your top players embrace ownership of any responsibility or task, large and small, that you assign. 

Ideally, however, keeping commitments and taking responsibility for your actions are not hit-or-miss characteristics displayed by only top employees. Instead, you want to create a culture where ownership and working together to achieve objectives is simply how things are done. Let’s explore easy ways you can create this type of proactive, supportive culture. 

Tip #1: Model ownership. Like children model their parents’ behavior, your employees look to you for cues about what is considered acceptable behavior in the workplace. Bottom line: If you want your team members to take ownership of their actions and work, you need to lead the way by keeping your commitments.  

Likewise, if you fail to keep a commitment, demonstrate with your words and actions how you expect them to take ownership. Acknowledge that you’ve broken your word and how it may have affected others, take ownership for your failure to complete a task as promised (no blaming or shaming others here!), probe into contributing factors if needed, identify what might need to change to make it possible to achieve your commitment, then set a new deadline.  

Tip #2: Reinforce the idea that you’re in this together as a team. And make sure that every individual understands how their work fits into the bigger picture. In Scaling Up, we do this by setting company priorities first, then department priorities, and finally, individual priorities. Continually review how individual and departmental actions align with corporate goals.  

Tip #3: Define success. This is where the Scaling Up definition of accountability comes into play. Make sure individuals understand what success looks like – and how it is being measured. 

Tip #4: Involve the team to find solutions. “A team is only as strong as its weakest link” applies here. If a team member is falling short on his responsibilities, encourage all team members to proactively brainstorm on ways to help – and then pitch in to get the work done. 

Tip #5: Review commitments. If an individual repeatedly fails to meet her commitment, take a step back and evaluate whether the commitment is realistic or even needed. If the task still has importance, ask the individual to recommit to a new deadline. 

Tip #6: Identify the learning. Every failure contains a lesson – if you’re willing to look for it. This includes the failure to keep a commitment. When an employee fails to keep a commitment, lead the exploration into why. What went wrong? Why did it happen? What can we do – and what we will do – to avoid this problem in the future?  

Tip #7: Celebrate success. It’s operant conditioning 101: Actions that are followed by rewards are more likely to be repeated. Want your employees to keep their commitments more often? Reward and celebrate them when they do. Offer verbal praise, write a thank you note, keep a chart to track how often commitments were kept, treat the team to lunch when they’ve demonstrated a certain level of commitment – the options are endless.  

Above all, make your expectations clear in everything you do – including in the implementation of these tips. Not only will your “A” Players crave a definition of the bar they’re trying to exceed, the rest of your team will benefit from receiving clear direction about what you want them to achieve. Plus, you’ll find it easier to identify when and how to help your team correct its course once everyone understands what your expectations are. 

Greater Ownership Is the Engine That Drives Scaling Up 

As a business leader, you have too much on your plate to micromanage your team. Scaling Up is work that is performed in addition to your regular duties. The only way it will be accomplished is if every individual takes ownership of their responsibilities. 

By creating a culture of accountability – what most of the world calls this valuable characteristic of owning your actions and responsibilities – you’ll naturally empower employees to align their actions with departmental and organizational goals. Use the seven tips in this article to get started … and watch how momentum builds.