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Key Takeaways Accountability is just a buzzword unless you can actually demonstrate how your business is becoming more accountable.
Real accountability covers three groups: customers, talent and the public. I created a scorecard that breaks into 10 yes-or-no questions across these three areas.
A low score isn’t a failure — it’s a roadmap for making changes. Make any question you answered “no” to your priority when moving forward.
Founders love to talk about accountability because it makes them look like responsible leaders. But unless you can specifically demonstrate how your business is becoming more accountable, it’s just a buzzword.
What’s more, bad leaders often cite accountability concerns when they make decisions that unnecessarily erode the freedom or privacy of their employees. Many a toxic workplace culture has been created by managers who decided they needed to subject their teams to surveillance because they didn’t trust them to be productive. The result is nearly always that people become more stressed and less trusting at work. Anyone who thinks that’s good for productivity just isn’t playing with a full deck.
So how can you actually hold your business accountable, and how do you verify that your approach is working? The same way you would verify the success of any other project: by selecting KPIs and tracking them at regular intervals.
I’m here to share the scorecard I created to measure accountability at my company, Roof Maxx. We sell a roof maintenance solution to extend asphalt shingle life, so the business is structured as a dealer network — but don’t worry, this can also work for companies that hire salaried employees or contractors.
Each question you can honestly answer “yes” to is worth a point. Tally them up at the end and see how accountable your business really is.
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