One of my clients has an employee who consistently blames others for anything that goes wrong in his department. And, if he is criticized by his manager, he has an artful way of ignoring the message and pointing the finger elsewhere.
A culture of accountability offsets an environment of blame. This employee (we’ll call him Samuel) has unique technical expertise. Certainly, this talent is recognized and appreciated, but by not paying attention to the team leader’s guidance, Samuel has created more problems with clients than he has actually solved.
Employees who don’t see themselves as accountable for their actions create morale problems for those who work around them. Co-workers resent that the blamers “get away with” their actions and worry about their own credibility when their work interfaces with the blamers.
When someone is a chronic blamer like Samuel, management usually grasps the situation in a reasonably short period of time. But if managers don’t do anything about it, morale will continue to drop, and a potentially toxic environment can emerge in that organization.
Here’s the catch: if you intentionally shift to create a culture of accountability, you need to create consequences for when employees are not accountable.
You can tie accountability to compensation, to the types of clients someone works with, to “plum” assignments, or even perks among other actions. The point is, you need to establish consequences for not being accountable, otherwise the offending behavior will continue.
“Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.”
– Desmond Tutu
Header image by Rodolpho Zanardo/Pexels.
