The importance of accountability in running a business – why you need to move away from a culture of blame

Focus on being productive when overcoming problems

Running a business can be stressful. Especially when you're starting out. When something goes wrong, it can be tempting to start assigning blame rather than think about accountability.

But if you want to grow your business, you need to move away from a culture of blame.

It's not easy to do. It comes more naturally for some of us than others. When you start to take action though and make solving the problem your focus, you'll start to see more success – in business and in life.

How “the boss” used to be

It's the classic old-school image of “the boss”. Some guy in a shirt, partly pulled out of his belt by his own time-pressured schedule and anger, shouting at some hapless employee for their mistake.

It's an image that's long gone the way of the Dodo. Yet the idea that if you are a leader or manager your role is partially one of punishment, correction, and “blame” assignation is one that still hangs around many organisations to one degree or another.

But it's one that most of us can see, given enough distance from the situation, is only ever going to be counterproductive. If you want to succeed as a leader in business, you want accountability.

You also want to be able to solve the problem and move on.

Make solving a problem your success

Running your own business can take your all. It can use up every waking minute of your every day. It can damage your relationships and your health. When you're putting so much of yourself in and something goes wrong, it can be tempting to let some of that pressure out at a visible target.

I'm sure most of us have been there. I can vividly remember a situation many years ago where I had noticed something going very wrong in my business. I was just about to go on a Skype meeting and, while I wasn't angry, I was very determined to discover what had gone wrong and who was responsible.

Luckily, there was a technical issue that slowed the start of the meeting. In that time, I remember quizzing myself on what I was hoping to achieve with that kind of approach.

In the end, we discovered how the situation had come about, resolved what we were going to do about it, and how we would avoid it happening in future.

It's a much better outcome than anything any of us could have achieved by going in trying to assign blame.

Take action on accountability in your business

Making sure your business includes a sense of accountability isn't the same as having a culture of blame.

This is something that team members and leaders both need to take action on. Everyone needs to understand that they are individually accountable. Even as the leader of your entire business, you are, in a sense, accountable to everyone else that's part of it.

If you're not getting better and aren't sure what action to take, don't overlook the importance of getting feedback. Get it from a variety of different sources – sometimes anonymously if you can – and try to take on board what is being said.

Armed with this information, you should find a few ways you can try to improve.

Be productive with problems

Some might argue that if you don't call out things that go wrong, you're never going to get better.

That's true. But calling out things that go wrong in a way that isn't productive isn't going to help you succeed.

To achieve success in business, you need to solve that problem and move on. And that's only going to be possible if you create a culture that's free from blame, but where individual accountability is high.

Do you agree? How do you help your team understand their own accountability without assigning blame?

Comment below. Let's get the conversation started!