Who besides you can impose accountability? I asked this question of a young woman, an HR professional, during a workshop onemployee engagement being presented by our friends and fellow Berrett-Koehler authors Dick and Emily Axelrod.
They had asked us to pair off with someone we didn't know. My conversation partner was a young woman who had begun working as an HR manager eight months earlier after earning a master’s degree in Organization Development. Her question about accountability got my attention.
HER: What do you think are really effective ways to hold other people accountable?
ME: I don’t believe you can hold other people accountable. That is one of the big myths in organizations, and this false belief that we can hold others accountable ends up wasting a huge amount of time and energy. People are always making their own choices about whether they're going to be accountable.
HER: But … but we have to be able to hold other people accountable to be effective!
ME: Can I ask who holds you accountable?
HER: Well, my boss holds me accountable. That is part of his job.
ME: So… if you didn’t have a boss watching you to make sure you did good work, you wouldn’t? You’d just show up and do the bare minimum in order to collect a paycheck?
HER: Of course not! I’m really committed to doing a good job! I take a lot of pride in the quality of my work.
ME: So then who is really in charge of your accountability?
