The Value of AccountabilityGeorge Washington Carver said, “Ninety-nine percent of all failures come from people who have a habit of making excuses.” Increase your chances of success by replacing an environment that breeds excuses with one that promotes accountability.
When accountability is valued, better work is accomplished. Accountability helps employees at all levels of the organization put forth their best effort.
In a setting where people are held accountable, everybody must take responsibility to ensure that his or her own tasks get accomplished. When something falls short, there’s no need to cast blame or point fingers because it is clear where the problem lies. If the choice is between finding success or having to own up to failure, most people will choose to put forth their best work.
When accountability is valued, the work environment becomes a place of trust. Managers can trust employees because they have a method for evaluating whether they doing what they are supposed to do. Employees can trust their leaders because they know that they, too, are held accountable for doing their best work. Trust is especially important in a trucking company since all employees do not have face-to-face contact with each other every day.
Accountability strikes a balance between an anything-goes environment and one in which the higher-ups micromanage the people under them. In a healthy workplace, leaders set goals and hold their teams accountable for achieving them. Then, the leaders step back and let people carry out their responsibilities. To keep the lines of communication open, they check in regularly, but they don’t hover or try to control the process.
People give their best effort to that which engages them. Accountability makes each employee a part of the team, which raises everybody’s commitment level. In trucking, that means that each person, whether in the office or on the road, will do his or her part to make the company the best it can be.
It’s easy to say that you take responsibility for your work or that you are fully committed to the team. But without a system of accountability, it’s hard to evaluate the truth of those statements. Accountability is the means by which your words go from lip service to reliable promises.
