Organizational accountability — a culture where people regularly meet deadlines, own up to their mistakes, and then follow through on finding solutions — is a characteristic of high-performing companies. However, it can be difficult for organizations to implement well.
One of the challenges to building accountability stems from a misalignment between expectations and outcomes. For example, if a person is expecting to be rewarded for reaching a specific goal and isn’t, or they observe a colleague receiving no consequence for missing a deadline, there’s a misalignment between expectations and what is experienced or observed. When a misalignment occurs, this quickly leads to a drop in engagement or motivation, as well as an erosion of trust in organizational systems. People begin to believe that their actions have no tangible consequences.
On the other hand, providing guidelines and highly predictable outcomes can help employees prioritize their work and satisfy their need for certainty. However, organizations sometimes struggle to provide this type of structure without taking away an individual’s autonomy or control over their work.
In fact, overly strict guidelines can dampen learning and foster a form of accountability NLI refers to as “punitive accountability.” This is an environment where individuals view accountability with fear or as a mechanism for blame and punishment, which hinders growth and learning within the organization.
There is another approach to accountability that overcomes both misalignment and a lack of autonomy and instead fosters an environment that drives engagement, follow-through, and learning. In an earlier article, we described the cultural shift from a punitive form of accountability to one referred to as “proactive accountability.” In a continuation of this work, NLI published “The Neuroscience of Proactive Accountability,” which introduces a behavioral framework for fostering this type of accountability.
There are three core behaviors for practicing proactive accountability, rooted in neuroscience and designed to be easy for leaders to execute and instill within their teams. Each behavior solves a common challenge people face when working toward accountability.
3 habits of proactive accountability
Syncing expectations ensures alignment and clarity
Foundational to accountability is communicating with clarity about intentions or goals, ensuring that expectations are aligned. This is an essential behavior because a lack of clarity around expectations or roles can cause people to form incorrect assumptions, leading to undesired outcomes.
The neural foundations of this behavior lie in how the brain sets and resets its expectations of others. This is important because unmet expectations trigger a set of emotional and cognitive responses that can significantly impact performance and well-being and, ultimately, erode interpersonal trust.
In fact, research shows that when communication is clear and understood by all, the electrical activities in the brains of the people involved are highly synchronized. This neural synchrony helps people align expectations and create clarity around future work, and it increases the likelihood that the desired results will be achieved.
Driving with purpose creates forward momentum with intention
While clarity is essential to begin, once people start working toward their goals they’ll sometimes get stuck on a problem or lose focus. To avoid getting stuck, they need strategies for staying on track while leaving nothing to chance.
Research shows that having a sense of purpose allows people to prioritize a task over others. It increases their resilience and makes it more likely they’ll reach their goals. Combining purpose with a sense of psychological ownership over their work is what drives people to take initiative, be deliberate with their actions, and assume nothing along the way — all of which is essential for making progress.
Owning the outcome secures follow-through
Finally, a common challenge for building accountability relates to how individuals react when a task is complete, whether the team achieved its goals or certain members made mistakes along the way.
In punitive cultures, people often resort to avoidance or blame, focusing on the mistakes that were made, which can damage organizational productivity and innovation. By contrast, when people embrace a growth mindset, the belief that skills can be improved over time, they’re able to learn from both wins and losses, and are motivated to find a solution in the face of mistakes.
Research shows apologizing well counts for a lot, too. Doing so — that is, claiming ownership, communicating specific plans to fix the mistake, and asking the receiver for their input — will engage regions of the receiver’s brain that support a sense of empathy and make it more likely that they will maintain their prior levels of interpersonal trust.
The latest NeuroLeadership Journal article is the second publication exploring accountability at the organizational level, this time examining the essential behaviors needed to create a culture of proactive accountability, plus the underlying neuroscience that supports each behavior.
To read the full article, “The Neuroscience of Accountability,” click here to become an NLI Corporate Member.
