There’s a fine line leaders must walk in today’s workplace between balancing accountability and prioritizing employee well-being — a byproduct of the pandemic that’s proving easier said than done.
When the pandemic first started, good leaders understood that they needed to be compassionate and flexible to best support their employees through the profound stresses and logistical challenges they were suddenly experiencing. If someone needed to work a split shift to accommodate virtual school — absolutely! If they moved three time zones to escape their tiny downtown condo — no problem! If any of these accommodations made things more challenging for the team — don’t worry, we’ll figure it out!
Now, four years later, productivity isn’t rebounding as expected and employees are pushing back. They’re bristling at the gradual clawback of flexibility and control, showing that they are no longer willing to endure a workplace of unmanageable expectations, all while managers are wondering when they can course correct.
Creating a New Era of Accountability
As an expert on building effective teams and increasing leadership effectiveness, Liane Davey has been watching this trend closely. She believes it’s time for a reset — time to usher in a new era of greater personal accountability without overcorrection, which risks creating a toxic workplace. The secret, Liane says, is helping leaders understand that accountability and empathy aren’t mutually exclusive.
In her keynote, “Proactive Accountability: Enhancing Responsibility without Eroding Empathy”, Liane walks leaders through practical techniques to increase accountability in their workplace and drive results in a psychologically safe way.
Becoming an Empathetic Leader vs. an Enabler
As Liane said, accountability and empathy are not mutually exclusive. It’s important to be an empathetic leader, especially in today’s world of rapid technological advancements, economic uncertainty, and a global focus on mental health and inclusion in the workplace. Empathy is the key to enabling authentic connections, fostering adaptability, and building trust in an era of constant change.
In the workplace, an empathetic leader is someone who can appreciate a situation from the employee’s perspective and make decisions with that context in mind, Liane said. However, being empathetic does not include lowering standards, tolerating underperformance, or accepting behaviour that compromises the team, the business, or the customer, she continued.
For example, if an employee is caring for an ailing parent who needs help getting to the doctor, it’s reasonable for them to expect their manager to recognize that a sick parent is stressful and show compassion. They should be open and flexible to how an employee accomplishes their tasks, i.e., catching up after hours, pushing back non-essential elements to the next day, or accepting help from a colleague. What is not reasonable is for the employee to expect their manager to be satisfied with them abandoning their obligations, compromising the quality of their work, or taking advantage of your peers.
Managers who let empathy devolve into lax performance will soon find their own accountability questioned.
Driving Results While Fostering Psychological Safety
Liane shared two strategies to help managers find balance between accountability and empathy within their teams and, as a result, build a psychologically safe workplace.
1. Set Clear Expectation and Ensure All Parties are Aligned on Those Expectations.
Great managers go far beyond just saying, “Do this!” They define both the outputs and outcomes they’re looking for with specificity. Outputs being things within an employee’s control to deliver, whereas the outcomes are results beyond their control that are driven by the outputs.
For example, a marketing manager may ask their employee to revamp the keywords on the company’s website using an SEO-optimized approach (the output) with the goal of increasing web traffic by 200% (the outcome). With clarity about the expected outputs and outcomes, the employee can monitor and course-correct their progress without fear and uncertainty of unspoken expectations.
This also eliminates the possibility of excuses as, while expectations are being set, the employees’ approach to completing a task can also be explored. This will expose any skill or knowledge gaps that prevent them from doing a good job. It also provides an opportunity to address whether their proposed approach lacks essential elements or is likely to create friction with other stakeholders.
2. Prioritize Employees’ Workplace to Ensure it’s Feasible to Deliver
Managers often fail to prioritize work, Liane said. As a result, employees struggle to be productive. The way to promote accountability and psychological safety, she continued, is to make space for people to work in focus and flow, allowing them to be efficient and effective as they work through their to-do list one item at a time.
Working (and worrying about) several things at once erodes productivity and heightens anxiety. It’s a lose-lose. If you want people to take accountability and work with less stress, let them do fewer things with a faster cadence, Liane said.
Model Accountability in Leadership
This is not a “do as I say not as I do” situation though. It’s important that leaders model accountability in their own behaviour so their team can follow suit. When a leader shares their struggles and their thought process openly without letting accountability lapse, they role model what accountability looks like in their workplace, Liane said. In practice, this means being transparent about what you’re struggling with while showing that you are taking ownership of the next steps.
For example, a leader may express that they are frustrated because they still haven’t convinced finance that they need that extra headcount. They could say, “I feel like our business case is solid, but I’m not sure why it’s not compelling. I’m going to meet with Tara tomorrow to get some insights on what’s getting funded. I’ll let you know how it goes.”
This demonstrates that you can’t give up when your first approach doesn’t work, Liane said, while also creating a safe space to say that it’s not easy and accomplishing hard things takes a toll. The leader who’s willing to model vulnerability and accountability earns both connection and confidence.
It’s Not About Perfection
It’s worth noting, Liane said, that leaders shouldn’t drive themselves to distraction trying to get accountability and empathy in perfect balance all the time; that’s just not realistic.
“Don’t be afraid to let the balance wobble a bit now and then — think of it more like training wheels,” she continued. “You don’t want to tip too far one way or another, but a little give and take helps. It’s ok for your expectations to tip toward accountability when there’s a high-stakes project due or when it’s the busiest time of the year. Similarly, it’s ok to tip toward empathy and let the standards slip when someone is new in a role or facing a particularly challenging time at home.”
What’s important, Liane added, is to not be too preoccupied with being perceived as fair. Fairness is a nebulous concept in the workplace, she continued. One employee will accuse you of being unfair because you didn’t do precisely the same thing for everyone. Another will object to you not adapting your decisions based on different circumstances.
As you balance accountability and empathy, do what feels fair to you and consider how that stance might be perceived. Go out of your way to explain your thought process, but don’t get stuck searching for a solution that’s fair to all. Nobody expects their leaders to be perfect but they do expect their leaders to take accountability, Liane said. If you get it wrong, apologize and course correct.
When looking to tackle today’s biggest challenges facing leaders today, Liane Davey is the go-to leadership expert. Her keynotes speak to the heart of modern management, where the ability to balance often opposing forces is crucial for sustaining both team morale and performance.
Known as the “teamwork doctor,” Liane delivers the perfect combination of education and entertainment that leaders and teams need to make an immediate impact on their organizations. Contact us to learn more about Liane and how to book her for your next event.
