Ambiguity is the Achilles Heel of accountability. To boost accountability, you must be specific – even more specific than you think you need to be. 

When specificity goes up things like miscommunication, rework and frustration all go down.  Accountability is also a two-way street. We can’t expect our team to be accountable to us unless we are accountable to them. 

You must have specific expectations, specific coaching and specific language.  This post focuses on the first component of accountability - specific expectations.

Excellent leaders help their teams by clearly and specifically defining the actions, timing and results they expect from others and from themselves. For each member of your team, make certain you communicate the 3W’s (What, Who and When).

We use a very similar format with our coaching clients to help them drive millions of dollars in improvement. The power is in its simplicity. To ensure clear expectations when using the 3W form, identify only one “Who” per action. This will avoid “two-headed monsters” since a “We” is unowned and undone.

We tend to think of consequences with respect to the short term – the immediate impact of our performance (positive or negative). That’s the easy part of defining specific consequences. But it still leaves a lot to the imagination.

As the circle of consequences below illustrates, we need to help employees see and understand the longer term, the downstream impact of their performances on team results, on the organization, on customers, on shareholders, and ultimately how that effects themselves.