CREATING A CULTURE OF ACCOUNTABILITY By Kym Krey
Do you find yourself constantly wondering why your staff don’t ‘just do it’? Frustrated about jobs left unfinished or poorly done, checklist not followed, training not implemented? You’ve shown them a thousand times, so you know they know HOW to do it…. but they just don’t. You go in early, stay back late to get it all done because if you don’t do it, who will? They seem to just turn up, do their clients and go home, leaving you to do everything else. It’s not how you thought running a business and employing a team would look! So, how do you create a culture of accountability in your business? Well, first, let’s get clear on what exactly that is… A Culture of Accountability is building a team of people who are super clear on what they’re here to do, know exactly what is expected and accept responsibility for doing it and doing it well. They get the job done: • Even when stuff gets in the way • Even when it’s a bit inconvenient • Even when it takes more effort than usual The OPPOSITE of a Culture of Accountability is a culture of BLAME and EXCUSES. It sounds something like this: • “It’s not my fault” or “It’s not my job” 88
Hair Biz Year 15 Issue 6
• “I don’t get paid to do that” • “I don’t do it like that” • “It’s not my problem. There’s nothing I could do” • Or just cutting corners and taking the easy way out You get the idea! So how do some Managers end up with a team who happily dot the Is and cross the Ts and take pride in doing a great job, while others can barely get them to turn up to work? Here are a few key points on what it takes to build your own Culture of Accountability. 1. Accountability demands a leader who walks their talk. Who demonstrates exactly what they expect from their staff in their own behaviour, every day. No ‘do as I say, not as I do’. If you make excuses and blame others as the leader, that behaviour will spread through your team in a flash! When a leader has the character to stand in front of their team and say “Guys, I stuffed that up!” or “I made a mistake and here’s what we’re going to do to fix it” or “What we’re doing isn’t working, so we’re going to try something different”, they show exactly
the kind of behaviour that teaches staff what accountability looks like. Ironically, a leader who says “I may not always get it right, but I’ll own it and fix it quickly when I don’t” earns far more trust and respect than the leader who can’t admit when they’re wrong. 2. Make the goal posts clear. You must be clear in your expectations, so your staff know exactly what you need and expect from them right from the start. No assuming they should magically ‘just know’ or telling yourself that it’s just ‘common sense’. That’s just poor leadership and guaranteed to set them up to fail. Clear expectations followed by the guidance and training to be able to do the role well (followed by continual accountability-…. more on that later) gives them the best possible chance of doing well for you. On day one, your onboarding conversation starts with: • This is who we are, what we’re passionate about and how we make a difference to our guests every day • This is why we are the stand-out choice for our clients and why what we do is unique • This is what outstanding service looks like to us and here’s exactly what I need you to do,
