Bottom-up Accountability
Article | Accountability Insights
How do you convince senior leadership in an organization to start encouraging people to take more accountability and stop assuming that they won’t do the right thing unless someone holds their feet to the fire? It’s not easy. Top-down accountability has become a way of life in most organizations. However, top-down accountability has also fueled the crisis of accountability we see in the world today.
When the Accountability Current flows in a top-down direction (i.e., top-down accountability), the organization fails to engender in its people the necessary ownership and personal investment to achieve sustainable results in today’s complex, ever-changing business environment. In sharp contrast, when the Accountability Current ?ows in a bottom-up direction (i.e., bottom-up accountability), people take greater accountability for achieving results and proactively report to their boss, their teammates, and their peers. Yes, bottom-up accountability requires a greater up-front investment in time and effort than top-down accountability requires, but it pays off substantially in the long run. People begin taking charge of tasks and overcoming obstacles without waiting for someone else to do something. Follow-up becomes a natural, ingrained habit, and senior management expends far less time and energy sustaining results-producing efforts throughout the organization.
Which way does the Accountability Current flow in your organization? To make a quick assessment of your organization’s Accountability Current, answer True or False to the following statements:
| • | People in your organization do not report on their progress unless they are asked to do so. | |
| • | Your organization focuses on “holding people accountable” as opposed to getting people to “take accountability.” | |
| • | When problems arise in your organization, people do not move forward without involvement from their direct supervisors. | |
| • | Most people in your organization do not feel empowered to do whatever it takes to make things happen. | |
| • | Management in your organization must constantly follow up on everyone to make sure the right things happen. |
If you answered True to three or more of the above questions, your organization’s Accountability Current most likely flows in a top-down direction. This means that your organization is probably working harder than necessary to obtain the benefits of accountability and will achieve “more for less” by changing the flow of the Accountability Current.
To learn more about how to change the Accountability Current in your organization, we invite you to join the Accountability Community at www.partnersinleadership.com, where you can review actual client case studies.
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