Climbing the Ladder of Accountability
"Where does that put you on the Ladder of Accountability, David?" Did one of my employees just catch me being low on the Ladder of Accountability after I had been preaching accountability for over a year? Yep. The student was now teaching the teacher. We had reached a major milestone. The endless repetition of that same message was starting to pay off. Then people started questioning each other about the Ladder of Accountability.
The year before we had suffered from a victim culture, so I had created a graphic with a four-rung ladder displaying the four levels of accountability. I didn’t invent the Ladder of Accountability. I just tweaked it. Then I shared it with the team. The research had shown the high cost of a low-accountability team, but we didn’t even need that because we could tell it was costing us, and we had to do something about it, or it would just get worse as we grew as a company.
We all started talking about it regularly and explored this new way of looking at our interactions with each other. Our CEO had printed out the ladder, and when an employee came to complain to him, the CEO pointed to the printout and asked him where he was on the Ladder of Accountability. That woke up the employee. Later in the same conversation, the same employee started to say something that would have been low accountability, and he stopped himself. He thought of how to think differently, and they shared a laugh. When an employee would come to me to tell me about an issue, my first question would be, "What do you suggest?" Some people loved this question because it showed their opinions and contributions were valued. Others hated the question because it meant they had more responsibility, more work, and more mental effort. These are the people who love to put the monkey on their manager's back.
We had to struggle to implement the change. We treated accountability as a skill. Just like any skill it requires practice. Practice involves intense struggle. We had to work together to understand what accountability means and practice together to be able to do it. Sometimes people had situations but were uncertain what action would be high on the Ladder, so we would talk it through together. At other times people thought they were taking the accountable action when they were not. In certain cases, we would look back and think we erred on the side of being too accountable, but ultimately that never turned out to be true.
I cannot say when the shift happened exactly, but at some point, we had absorbed the value of accountability so deeply that new people needed less training on it because they just saw how things are done and fell into line with that. They had no idea what kind of mental and emotional struggle we had undergone as a company to develop our accountability. Some people who were low on the Ladder just would not make the changes necessary, and decided to leave. We even interviewed new candidates who decided to withdraw their application because high accountability just did not interest them. Today an outsider might see and feel the norms of the group and understand what is acceptable without even being able to place their finger on what exactly it is.
We sometimes need to remind ourselves that not everyone is at the same level. When we observe behavior low on the Ladder of Accountability by our suppliers and customers, it sticks out like such a sore thumb that we are sometimes surprised that this does not feel so blatantly wrong to them. Sometimes clients do not appreciate the level of accountability they get with us, which can be surprising, confusing, and even painful.
Managers who understand and refer to the Ladder of Accountability can identify these situations and adjust their team's approach to improve accountability. The first step is to share the Ladder with the Team. We used it as a feedback tool, and people would hear about it almost daily.
We also used it as a review tool and even a hiring tool. I tell job candidates about the importance of accountability and share some examples and real stories. Their reactions speak volumes about where they fall on the ladder. If they join in and give me some examples, they get it. If they look scared or try too hard to convince me, they are not a fit. When someone describes their other positions, their level of accountability is quite obvious. Did they complain about unfair situations, or did they always take more responsibility and make the most of any opportunity they had?
Where are you on the Ladder of Accountability? Where is your team? Let’s look more closely at each step on the Ladder of Accountability. Bear in mind that people are not stuck in place. I have never identified somebody who is and always was at the top level. Whether they are willing to move up to the next level depends entirely on how willing they are to reflect deeply and engage in the mental and emotional struggle to move up to the next level.
Level 0 – The Powerless Victim
Have you ever dealt with someone who was low on accountability? On the lowest level of accountability, the team does not get things done without the manager. I call this Level 0 because accountability is basically nonexistent. If people are happy to unload their responsibilities onto their manager, they are low on the Ladder of Accountability. These people delegate up. They are happy to lighten their own workload by giving their managers more of their work. If they have no instructions, they will wait until someone tells them what to do. If something goes wrong, they blame others. If they are not happy with something, they complain about it and leave it at that. They deny that responsibility is theirs and do what they can to avoid additional responsibility, but they will do just enough to not lose their jobs.
They can be apathetic, and they can even go beyond victimhood to be outright saboteurs. They hold grudging compliance and even malicious obedience. These are the people who will hear something a manager says to the group, secretly disagree, and later whisper in the ears of others to sabotage the effort.
Have you ever worked with someone who was highly skilled at and very comfortable with putting the monkey on their manager’s back? I once worked with someone who was technically strong but so used to the mindset of a temporary employee that the entire concept of accountability was too foreign to him. He wanted to throw everything over the wall. He was so adept at sidestepping ownership that he seemed to be refusing to move up the ladder. Finally, we had to have a discussion to give him candid feedback. He turned out to not want to increase his level of accountability. He liked where he was. It was safe, comfortable, and he had done well there in his career.
Level 1 – The Good Soldier
On the next level up, some accountability exists. Rather than wait until being told what to do, people will ask what to do and do it. Rather than deny any problems exist, the person acknowledges problems. This person is respectful but not intimidated. They conduct themselves with a professional attitude. They are responsive when addressed and reliably follow the letter of the law. When given responsibility for a task, they respond with a time expectation for when they commit to completing the task. If they cannot give the time expectation at that time, they will commit to a time when they will commit to completing a task.
When I share this with most managers, a common reaction is that they would be thrilled with a team that did this. This seems to be a high expectation for people to achieve and just get to Level 1. This is true. Level 1 requires a lot of effort to achieve, but achieving all of this is just enough to get beyond the novice level. They still have a long way to go to truly master the Ladder of Accountability.
Level 2 – The Committed Solver
At the next level the skilled practitioner no longer asks what to do, but starts to search for and recommend solutions. Now they are starting to understand how to look at things as an owner rather than as a subordinate. They take action and can handle the higher levels of pressure that come with higher levels of responsibility and uncertainty. They have become adept at removing barriers so they can navigate roadblocks. Their general attitude is, “I will do as much as I can within the existing structures.”
Can you identify the times in your development when you moved up the ladder? I recall the point when I transitioned from the You-Tell-Me-What-To-Do mindset to the I-Will-Do-All-I-Can mindset. I was at a small, microfinance organization, and we were doing an annual strategy exercise for the company, which I had always dreaded in the past. We broke up into teams and within those teams, each person had an area to focus. I was assigned innovation, and looked up what that meant and how to do it. I found myself reading about a lot of inspiring activities that other companies did. That weekend I read an entire book and several articles. As I researched more, I found more ideas, and grew more inspired. When I returned, on Monday to turn in what I had done, I hoped people were satisfied, but they were actually surprised, impressed, and excited. I came away from that experience wishing every day could be like that.
After that I stopped looking at the clock and leaving at 5 each day. I started feeling excited about thinking about work on evenings and weekends. Then I started to think about how to improve things. I started reading articles and books to get ideas on how to do things better.
Level 3 – The Indispensable Linchpin
The fully committed owner acts with more independence to implement solutions. They lead up and routinely report on their status. This person has the I’ll-Do-What-It-Takes mentality. Rather than work only within existing structures, they create the needed structures. They inspire confidence and are adept at bringing others up the Ladder of Accountability.
Once I started to look at things as an owner, I changed. Every aspect of my products became important and something I wanted to improve. I also found that I had more respect from other people. Because I cared more, I also experienced more extreme emotions. I gave up some sense of safety and the ease that comes with not being accountable. I was becoming a new person, dealing with new levels of pressure which brought out anxieties I never knew I had. In many ways, I was growing up.
So how do we implement this in our teams? First, you accept the current position of the other person. This removes emotional distractions that interfere with the learning process. Then you support the understanding. Expect to deliver the message repeatedly over the long term. Explaining the specific applications of accountability helps people connect the concepts to their own situation.
I have had to make sure I maintain humility and remind myself that everyone is at a different place in their learning journey. I was not always at the top of the Ladder of Accountability, and I still have more to learn. I tend to be very matter of fact about dealing with the Ladder of Accountability. When a situation happens, and somebody is not fully accountable, rather than initiate frustration within myself by thinking about where they should be, I just acknowledge where they are. I share with them, that this is their current level, and to go up to the next level, this is what they would do in a situation like this.
What challenges have you had with the accountability of your team? What have been your biggest difficulty in developing your own accountability?
