When you commit to something, do you consistently follow through and make sure it is done? A responsible adult normally does so, whether at the office, at home or in the community.
Some people are born responsible. Think how some older siblings instinctively help take charge of younger brothers and sisters. Others need prompting and encouragement to learn to take pride in their roles and integrity. In a work environment, it is not too late to shape a sense of moral obligation and instill a spirit of purpose in your teams.
What ownership means
It is easy to recognize responsible work behavior when we see it. Suppose the floor in the office lobby is slippery. Appropriate precautions involve posting a warning or adding a mat for traction. Or imagine receiving a customer complaint. A dedicated support representative might perform a thorough investigation, ask other colleagues’ advice or test out potential solutions or workarounds. They try to improve a flawed process rather than ignore it.
In general, responsibility means completing tasks on time and to an acceptable standard. Responsible team members become confident they can rely on each other. They reject the blame game. Performance and morale improve in tandem when the group shares its successes and missteps. Yet at the same time, the onus shifts from the team to the individual for assigning liability. It is fairest to evaluate everyone’s own contribution.
It is useful to distinguish between responsibility and accountability. The difference is subtle but marked. The former represents someone’s obligation to complete a task or tasks, based on their role. The latter stands for ownership of an event or experience after the responsibilities have been completed. Note that although the terms are often used interchangeably, they describe different angles. One might be responsible for a task without being accountable, and vice versa. Normally, any number of team members might be responsible for a given project; however, only one person is likely to be accountable for it.
Some managers create a responsibility/accountability matrix that groups a team’s members into separate categories describing their roles:
- Responsible — directly involved in completing a task
- Accountable — delegating and reviewing the progress of a task
- Consulting — giving guidance and feedback to team members on a task
- Informed — being looped in on the progress of a task
The matrix provides an overview of all the elements so the manager can see at a glance who participates and how.
Redefining your culture beyond numbers
Responsibility should not be limited to scorekeeping and accounting metrics. Employees become defensive when reduced to being a dehumanizing number. They may soon question whether a manager can be trusted to judge their performance.
The answer is to try to capture the totality of the person and not merely their output. At heart, most people want to do a decent job. Do the metrics reveal the entire story? Can the employees being measured actually influence the output? Poor performance may in fact come from poor instructions, policies, processes or systems, or inadequate training. Do the output results align with individuals’ contributions and strengths?
A negativity bias that looks for trouble focuses on shortfalls and threatens team members’ egos. Instead, redefine standards to emphasize meeting challenges with dignity. For example, let employees set their own bar. Do away with extra documentation and obligatory check-ins and replace them with questions geared to elicit pride. A healthy work culture allows for mistakes, which can be learning experiences. Taking a few justifiable risks and chances might pay big dividends.
Training a more responsible team
Avoid temptations to micromanage. It is more productive to empower your team to carry out their assignments and hold them accountable where warranted. (That said, a Harvard Business Review survey found that 80% of managers had little capability to hold anyone accountable.)
To begin, clarify your expectations so the group understands what is at stake. They need to know how they themselves complement the greater scheme.
You will probably get what you anticipate. A Pygmalion effect suggests a self-fulfilling prophecy: Higher expectations lead to others’ improved performance. This idea derives from a Greek myth in which a sculptor fashioned a statue so beautiful it came to life. Work teams may rise to the occasion too.