Simplifying Accountability for Managers
Let’s find out how accountability will make you an efficient Manager.
Often managers struggle to understand what they will be held accountable for. The reason is their job description will only define the responsibilities but not accountabilities.
Many companies fail to create an environment where there is clear definition of accountability for Managers.
As per many studies in the past, managers become efficient when they are clear about their accountabilities.
In this blog, I will attempt to simplify accountability in management role.
What is accountability?
It is an obligation. Accountable is being answerable for the actions that you take to fulfil your responsibilities.
For example, let’s say you are managing an application development team. There will be scenarios, where the UX team has to provide the design for the UI that your team must implement.
Now, if there is a delay from UX team, are you responsible for the delay? The answer is no. But are you accountable to the overall delivery of the UI? The answer is Yes.
In this case, what action you take to make sure UX team does not delay their deliverable or what action you take in case there is a delay will be questioned.
As per your job description, as a manager you are responsible for overall delivery from application team. So, irrespective of how other team performs, you are answerable for the actions you take to fulfil the responsibilities mentioned in job description.
Responsibility vs Accountability
In simple terms, responsibilities are those which defines your role in the organisation and accountability defines how you fulfil the responsibilities by taking several actions.
Responsibilities defines the results expected, accountabilities are the actions taken to get to the results.
In any role, an employee is accountable or answerable for the actions taken irrespective of the end result. As manager, you must accept that you will be held accountable for the actions no matter what is the outcome.
For example, the release of a module might have completed on time. But if the actions taken to complete it on time e.g. skipping some processes or not getting the design reviewed by the architecture team, how the process was followed, release notes etc. are all questionable and you will be held accountable.
You are accountable
Few managers argue that they cannot do anything when other teams don’t perform. So they cannot be held accountable for the delays from their team.
To answer this dilemma, let’s see an analogy of Parent and their children. Let’s say the child goes to school late. The Parents are not questioned on why the child was late; instead the child is questioned for coming late.
In the above situation why the child is answerable? What can a child do when the parents don’t plan the morning for reaching the school on time. In this situation, both parents and child are equally responsible for reaching the school on-time, but the child is answerable for coming late.
If you apply the same analogy in an organisation — you are equally responsible for what goes on in other teams as well. But you are answerable for your actions to make sure the planned release from your team goes out irrespective of what happens in others.
What managers are accountable for?
Following are some of the basic items that a manager is accountable.
- Team performance
Making sure the team performs consistently is manager’s accountability. A manager must set clear goals and track to make sure the team performance improves consistently. - Process adherence
Without process adherence, many things will fall apart. So making sure your team and yourself adhere to the process without fail, will help you to achieve better results. - Project completion
Making sure the projects in hand go on time is manager’s accountability. No matter how the dependent team perform and keep up with their commitment, you will be held accountable for the overall progress of the project assigned to your team. - Strategic partnerships
Having strategic partnership with your peer managers will make sure better communication between the teams. With better information exchange, you can take actions which will yield to the right results and fulfil your accountability.
Conclusion
Accountability for an individual is not a myth and you can’t escape from it. As managers you have higher accountability as you are responsible for making sure the team and organisation goals are met.
The moment you accept this, your actions will become more result oriented and always striving for success. This is when you become an efficient manager and thus increasing the chance for moving up in the management ladder.
So make sure you understand clearly what you are accountable for and take pro-active actions to fulfil your responsibilities.
Happy management!
Further reading
