Over the past few weeks’ content has been based on the Five Behaviors® profile system, which itself is based on The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni. As we discuss week by week, if cultivated, the five behaviors Lencioni identified (trust, conflict, commitment, accountability and results) will build a cohesive team that works together in an effective and efficient way. If a team participates in a profiling exercise, the report will show how the team as a whole and its members as individuals are performing against the model, giving them the opportunity to discover how they can improve.
As a quick recap, trust means the degree of confidence team members have in each other’s ability to deliver; conflict talks to the capacity in the team to deal accommodate and respond constructively to conflict; while commitment says we don’t need unanimous agreement, we just need clarity and buy-in to a team decision in order to support delivery. Today we look closer at accountability.
What is accountability? Can we say it is ability of the team (atmosphere, behaviours, systems) to identify and call out those behaviours or that quality of performance that is contrary to team goals, including the ability of team members to respond to that call? In other words, being held responsible and accepting responsibility for quality of delivery.
According to research based on the Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team™ assessment, accountability is consistently the lowest scoring factor. Fortunately there are tools that are immediately available to set the foundation for accountability. The scorecard and the team meeting.
A well-structured meeting normally includes a review of team goals, an appraisal of performance to date, and a proposed way forward. During the performance appraisal colleagues have the opportunity to interrogate hindrances to performance against goals, including the delivery of the team member concerned. Yet this is the area that we gloss over. We create sophisticated presentations that minimize or hide our non-delivery, and we avoid taking responsibility. The team accepts this and avoids holding colleagues accountable. We all have our own reasons in our various environments but the avoidance behaviours are the same. If we can develop SMART team goals in our scorecards and run our meetings properly, including asking the tough questions, accountability will improve. Of course there will be some discomfort, but how else would we grow as teams and individuals?
When we reflect on why it is often so difficult for us as teams to ask the tough questions, and hold each other accountable, are these some of the reasons that come to mind?
- We don’t want to create conflict
- We don’t feel qualified to confront the behaviour that we may be guilty of ourselves
- The team leader has the sole mandate to hold us accountable
- We don’t want to be unpopular and/or ruin an otherwise good meeting
What if you could get a team assessment that shows your standing on the Five Behaviours model, so that you as a team can identify the gaps you need to close to get from ‘why do you drop the ball’ to ‘how can I support you?’ level of interactions in your accountability sessions?
