'Proactive accountability' key to growth and innovation

MARCUS leads a team of eight direct reports and Jennifer is his star employee. While the other seven team members struggle to complete tasks on time or in the way Marcus asks for them, Jennifer seems to ace any task she's given. She asks questions when she's unclear and owns up to her mistakes. Any time the other employees mess up, Marcus wishes he could clone Jennifer seven times and save himself the hassle.

- CHRIS WELLER, DAVID ROCK

Sound familiar? You may not be able to clone your star employees, but you can help them replicate the cognitive habits of people like Jennifer to build the skill of accountability across your team. Accountable people get clarity in what they’re supposed to do, execute tasks deliberately and intentionally, and learn from the outcomes they produce whether good or bad.

Cognitive attention

When people attend to these good cognitive habits in the course of their work, we call it “proactive accountability”. They see accountability as a way to grow, develop and innovate. They take ownership of their responsibilities and learn from their mistakes.

Proactive accountability stands in contrast to punitive accountability - a practice in which leaders create environments of fear, blame or punishment that hinder learning and growth. It's also the antithesis of permissive accountability, where leaders assume performance issues will simply work themselves out.

Essentially, there are three cognitive habits that drive proactive accountability:

Sync expectations

A major factor in cultures with low accountability is a mismatch in expectations. The manager thinks the team member will do one thing, but the team member thinks they’re supposed to do something else. Disappointment and broken trust follow.