Taking Ownership
How to Create a Culture of
Accountability in the Workplace
JULY 14, 2016
Speaker: Molly Kelley
Moderator: Brandon Laws

Housekeeping
• 45-minute presentation; 15-minute Q & A
• Enter questions in the chat window for Q&A
portion
• Slides & Recording Available 24-48 hours after
session
• 1 HRCI Credit available for attendees. Email
Brandon.Laws@XeniumHR.com to get certificate
• Get alerts about events, webinars and podcast at
xeniumhr.com

Meet your
presenter,
Molly.
• Sr. HR Business Partner at
Xenium HR
• Works with various small and
medium sized businesses
across many industries
• Trainer for Xenium clients and
guests
• Loves to read; frequents
HBR.org and is an NPR super
fan

Definition of accountability :
the quality or state of being
accountable; especially: an
obligation or willingness to accept
responsibility or to account for one's
actions
Merriam Webster Dictionary

the WHY
• Managers increasingly report a
perceived lack of employee
accountability
• Employees feel there is a lack
of leadership accountability
• Coworkers report their
colleagues aren’t accountable
to one another, the work or the
company

Impact of Accountability
Void

Accountable Cultures Have…
• improved performance
• greater employee participation and involvement
• increased feelings of job proficiency
• a heightened commitment to the work at hand
• added creativity and innovation
• leading to higher employee morale and job
satisfaction, and deeper employee engagement

Culture
Manager
Employee

Accountable Managers

Leadership’s Role In Building
Accountability
• Managers are responsible for accomplishing results
through others; often via relationship-building and their
demonstration of high trust and personal integrity
• Leaders have the greatest initial influence on company
culture
• While held to the highest standard of accountability,
sometimes leaders abandon responsibilities in these
areas; the weight of leadership becomes an excuse

Accountable Managers Ask
Themselves
1. When did your performance expectations not
match the results?
2. What could you have you done differently to
attain your expectations?
3. Do you continue to enforce the missing
element(s) in your work?

“Great management can only be
attained by those who are able to
manage themselves before managing
others... Without accountability, the
ability to manage doesn’t exist. Great
management is holding yourself and
those around you accountable to
deliver results.” - Greg Llopis

Language of Accountability
• Mistakes? What mistakes?
• They made mistakes.
• Mistakes were made.
• We made mistakes.
• I regret the mistakes that were made.
• I made mistakes; we all did.
• We are addressing the mistakes and working
to ensure they don’t occur again.
• I own the mistakes and am actively working to
ensure they don’t occur again.
• I own our mistakes and am actively working to
ensure they don’t occur again

Accountability to Goals
• Involve employees goal setting
• Coach, but encourage independence
• CONSISTENTLY monitor progress towards
goals
• Provide needed training and resources
• Establish a framework for independent problem
solving (GROW model)
• Incentivize and recognize positive
performance, both formally and informally

Accountability to
Self
• Did I work as hard as I could have?
• Did I set and maintain high standards
for myself?
• Did I spend enough time to do quality
work?
• Did I regulate my procrastination,
distractions, and temptations in order
to complete my work?
• Did I make good use of available
resources?
• Did I ask questions if I needed help?
• Did I review and re-review my work for
possible errors?
• Did I consider best practices for similar
work?
• Is my work something for which I am
proud – that I would proudly show to a
large, global audience?

Cultural Accountability

“Accountability means people can
count on one another to keep
performance commitments and
communication agreements.”
- Mark Samuel,
The Accountability Revolution

Strategies: Build Accountable
Teams
• Model accountability, collaboration & trust within your leadership team
• Establish and clarify expectations (ex. values, agreements, Xenium
Promise)
• Clearly defined roles and accountabilities
• Hire accountability values
• Provide ongoing communication skills training
• Practice recognition and improvement

Summary of Key Points
Create a culture that makes
accountability as easy as breathing
Hold leaders to the highest
standards of accountability, and
support them in ongoing efforts to
maintain that standard
Hire, reinforce and reward individual
employee accountability
1
2
3

Resources
– The Accountability Revolution by Mark Samuel
– QBQ! by John G. Miller
– Crucial Accountability by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny,
Ron McMillan, Al Switzler, David Maxfield
– http://www.clomedia.com/2015/01/29/want-results-fix-
accountability/
– http://www.forbes.com/sites/glennllopis/2012/07/17/great-
management-boils-down-to-one-major-thing/#2f09a9dd36c5
– https://hbr.org/2012/11/one-out-of-every-two-managers-is-
terrible-at-accountability/
– https://www.themuse.com/advice/3-ways-to-create-an-
ownership-mentality-within-your-team

Questions for
Molly?
Enter your question for Molly into the
chat window on the gotowebinar panel
Speaker Moderator

Thank you!
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General Email:
info@xeniumhr.com
Molly:
Molly.Kelley@xeniumhr.com
Brandon:
Brandon.Laws@xeniumhr.com