Implementation of Employee Accountability
Employee accountability starts with the manager and a coherent approach that is a value-driven management plan. It is the plan that reflects the corporate culture of the organization. This management knowledge, big picture view of the organization is ideal for employees in key positions to visualize and attend to when the execution of their roles and responsibilities is required. Managers who are clear and confident in guiding the organization will win confidence of the employees and can lead the team to an effective performance. An effective effort to achieve this ‘big picture’ view is often executed by managers around the organization.
The manager becomes an effective role model based on their behavior and verbal approach. All managers should continually reinforce the understanding of the purpose of having a plan and also communicating how their ‘big picture’ view is being executed. The communication can be usually through informal interactions with their employees at various times during the year (e.g.: jokingly with a ‘Happy Birthday Territories’markets to the sales Teams and dare theft keepers…). Confidence is also the manager’s confidence for conveying his points confidently, which in turn is an effective tool for the employees. Confidence to demonstrate themselves as being of a strong character and have the capability for achieving a positive energy to up and develop their job performance.
The manager should also have the confidence to hold themselves accountable as they set the targets, behaviors and results expected from employees. The delivery of the targets at the right time and following agreed upon methods will create good job satisfaction and productivity of employees. There is a difference of taking action and having a ‘can do” attitude, going for the action of getting things done without wasting time and resources and is crucial in leading the team (as the individual managers contributing the skills and knowledge into the system).
The key for leaders is to develop a management philosophy of being able to guide themselves to be putting in place a base of control, in order to highly empower the employees ability to reach independent mindsets and lead them to being self-directed. This value and philosophy of leading the team and their employees to a sense of effortless performance when projecting a positive attitude and making a meaningful contribution to the company has a great impact on the success of the managers.
The communication strategies are directly related to the previously mentioned ‘pokerace99‘ view of the company. They have a great impact on the employees attitude towards sharing their own understanding of the company goals or more simply the motivating processes connected to the success of the organization. The communication strategy therefore should be capable of stimulating and encouraging a sharing and horizontal perspective across managers.
One way of motivational change is through an effective reward and recognition strategy. Both the employee and the senior manager can feel the pride associated with achieving higher targets. This confidence represents the strong give and receive policy which is a reason to focus on accountability within the organization. It gives a strong overall feeling of belonging and it provides job satisfaction.
The reward and recognition strategy needs to be embedded in the employees’ performance management practices. It is important to make a realistic view of what is valued at the different levels in the company as well as the company performance goals. Every time there is a goal and the results are achieved, the manager can reward the employee in a way suitable for them and also offer tangible benefits linked to the success of the objectives. The employee feeling of success can be repeated or it can be used for motivating the employees in other strategies.
The reward and recognition strategy, both to the employee and to the senior manager needs to be used as the supporting manager tools! The approach and philosophy being practiced has a clear effect on the character and judgments managers form towards the employees. It also has a strong and positive effect on the overall employee perception and it determines whether the performance management practices are based on a ‘can do’ approach or broken into a simplistic method into the results achieved.
Given that feedback is crucial to effective employee accountability, the feedback will be more effective if managers have a strong sense of motivation and pride associated with the achievement of performance goals. The probability of having positive shape to the feedback is dependent on the management philosophy which also creates a ‘can do’ culture in the organization. Hence, the true question is, “What is my approach towards management communication?”