Hannah considers when accountability gives us the edge and when it risks tipping us over!
One of our values at Rambutan is being passionately accountable; it’s in our blood and is something we love to chat about (you could even say we’re ‘passionate’ about it!)
The Cambridge Dictionary defines accountability as the degree to which you’re ‘responsible for what you do and able to give a satisfactory reason for it.’ While what it means to each of us is personal (and often intertwined with integrity), common components include:
- rising to challenges
- reliability and following through on what we say we’re going to do (and saying ‘no’ if we can’t)
- admitting if something hasn’t gone to plan (we’re only human after all) and making it right
The extent to which any individual is good at each of these components may vary. If all three are equally present and held in balance, it contributes to building trust and demonstrating a positive track record. All good, right?
But what about the dark side? Yes, there IS a dark side! As behavioural experts, hyper-accountability also piques our interest; what happens when accountability becomes a strength overplayed? There’s a tipping point, beyond which the only way for someone to become more accountable is to take something away from someone else, causing damage in the process (to themselves or others).
What do I mean by taking something away? Hyper-accountable behaviour, driven by a variety of factors (see our model, Why people do what they do), can result in a variety of negative consequences for everyone:
- individuals may take on a disproportionate share of the workload, burning the candle at both ends and often ultimately burning out. The potential losses here include their wellbeing, long-term sick pay, loss of talent and additional training and recruitment costs
- they may be left without bandwidth for strategy or daring innovation, because they’re too busy on a hamster wheel. This can be compounded by a culture of blame attached to accountability, which creates anxiety around trying anything new
- some of the tasks that hyper-accountable individuals are hanging on to may present others with positive stretch and growth (if only they were given the opportunity to rise to the challenge). This can mean some are overburdened while others are… well… bored!
There’s often confusion around the difference between accountability (the buck ultimately stops with me) and responsibility (carrying out a task), which only gets worse in high-blame cultures. If there’s a sense that someone will ‘cop it’ if anything goes wrong, they’re more likely to retain total control rather than involve others. Decreased willingness to delegate creates a vicious cycle of never-ending work for some and disempowerment for others.
This also upsets the balance between a strategic and tactical approach, meaning leaders over-involve themselves when they could be empowering others. Instead, their colleagues are watching from the sidelines and talent goes underutilised.
The need for even distribution of workload is commonly acknowledged, of course, but when it’s out of whack, unevenly distributed accountability is sometimes the silent culprit. Accountability needs to be equalised across an organisation, or we can fall foul of unfairly holding each other to different standards, which breeds resentment.
I once worked with a brilliant leader who was rapidly approaching burnout and considering leaving. Through conversation, a pattern became clear; they took on too much, which created over-reliance. Others leaned into their leader’s problem-solving abilities and made fewer decisions themselves as a result. Interestingly, the dial began to shift as the leader learned to flip issues that the team brought into coaching questions, e.g. what have you tried? What’s working? Workload was more evenly distributed, the organisation retained its talent and engagement scores around perceptions of their manager improved, as higher empowerment boosted job satisfaction.
Most of us come from a place of good intent; we want to do right by our business and our colleagues and go the extra mile. As noble as this may be, it’s also worth reflecting on the question: if you give too much of yourself, what do you and others stand to lose?