Accountability – Commitment Comes Inside-Out
Is it great, innovative products or smart and competitive business and/or marketing strategies? A father of modern management, Peter Drucker, once said that business has only two distinctive functions – Marketing and Innovation.
While the importance of these two cannot be overruled, a company or an organization is nothing if it doesn’t provide a reliable, after-sales service. The relationship does not end with you making the sale or providing service. The journey begins as you both reached the level of trust necessary for a great business relationship. That’s its commitment towards its customers and a way to create future customers; in business management, it is called accountability. As a customer/external-oriented business your main goal is customer satisfaction and fulfilment.
Your team, people, and staff must adhere to it. It must be lived and practised at every level within the organisation. This is best achieved if you show that you really care and continuously search for ways to exceed their expectations. This is your unique enforcer that will make your customers and clients come back and do repeated business in years to come. Good service = repeated business, bad service – you guess…
Accountability isn’t restricted but rather widespread
However, accountability is not restricted within the said domain; as a matter of fact, accountability is the inner blood of a company, existing at both micro and macro levels and ensuring the concentrated efforts and support of every employee in an organization. It is vital to bring success; if co-workers can’t keep commitment within themselves, they won’t be able to do so to the external world. If it does not exist on every level from the top management to the low-level direct labourers, the message that the organisation sends to the external world will be clear. An entire workforce’s accountability is what adds the icing to a company’s reputation; it’s not only with superior management skills alone that success could be achieved. Accountability imparts an organization its competitive edge, its productivity and increases opportunities – all of them are absolutely vital for long-term business growth.
In this game, everything counts! That’s why it is the fastest way to propel or destroy your brand and repute!
A lot many people might think – “What the fuss is all about? You keep your word and that’s where it gets over.” Wrong; accountability is much harder stuff than it seems; it is currently a challenge to many organizations lacking proper interpersonal communication skills. It is a lack of clarity and focus that creates the majority of communication problems in any organisation. When strategies, goals, and intentions are known only to some, distractions are everywhere and the execution flow is slow. If there is no involvement, there can’t be contribution and that alone will wipe out accountability.
You have to play on the same page, on the same field for the common goal and visionary results!
It is vision, more than anything, followed by communication that engages people and motivates employees/managers the correct way while driving them to stay true to the organization they are working for. As a whole, the combined effect reflects their sense of responsibility towards the customers, bringing in acceptance in the market, creating a wow effect and raving fans. Repeated business is all that matters, if it is not happening for you, this should raise alarm bells.
Accountability, in simpler words, could be defined as employees and managers shall do the necessary things the way they should be done. This is where a sense of responsibility for individual roles kicks in, initiating entrepreneurial thinking in all. That makes teamwork better, supportiveness impeccable and a display of initiatives that surpass individual job descriptions. A machine is bound to perform well if all its parts are in sync with each other; music is when different sounds are created in harmony. Overall, accountability results in compatibility in opinion and action among individuals who, otherwise, have different mindsets.
The crucial point for greater accountability is – Eliminate GRAY AREAS in your business & assign individual responsibilities
Things must be defined, explained and instigated. Where there is a shared responsibility, responsibility will suffer. point is when many of us are responsible for the same things we usually care less.
My personal observation is that Accountability and the process itself represent a guiding principle and a system for building an interpersonal and externally oriented fulfilment with everybody that directly or indirectly interacts with the organisation itself. Sounds complicated, yeah, but it really comes down to shared Vision and actions to add value through our best intentions.
Obstacles and Problems…
What makes accountability suffer? Firstly, it is a lack of trust. Without it – everything in the organisation is paralyzed. Secondly, the nonexistence of a powerful Accountability System in place that will ensure that all involved stay on the same page and fully committed. Thirdly, lack of specific information about goals, strategies, specific actions and overall involvement in the process. Next comes commitment and responsibility as some of us clearly avoid these two all the time. You must be clear about this, your business is not safe harbour cruising. Creative tension and sensitive deadlines will exist and are desirable. After all, there are various operational issues about choices involved in prospecting, development and networking in a professional manner, which is integrity; understanding one’s own shortcomings and tracking opportunities.