This focuses on personal accountability in the workplace.

1. ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTANTS
Richmond - Shenandoah Valley - Virginia - Peninsula - Roanoke
Accountability: A Core
Leadership Value
Facilitated by
Patrick Patrong, BSE, MCRP, MCRP
Patrong Enterprises, Inc.

2. After this session participants will understand the
culture of accountability in the following areas:
Objectives
• Accountability Culture
• A New Definition
• Clearly Defined Results
• The Next Step: Alignment
• Eliminating the Blame Game
• Sustaining Change

3. Activity
Connect like symbols, with a single continuous
line.
Lines must not cross each other, go through the
small boxes, or outside the large box
Lines must only touch the box that they are
connecting.

4. Connecting the Boxes

5. Practice the highest standards of performance
toward achievable goals. Accept responsibility for
outcomes, and the process that leads to:
Accountability
• Follow performance expectations,
consistently in our work practices
• Follow-through on commitments and
complete work in a timely manner
• Support co-workers in meeting
expectations and being accountable

6. Most organizations link
results with the level of
accountability
The Culture of Accountability
The challenge is knowing
how to create and sustain a
culture of accountability

7. Organizations operating with a
high level of accountability
have been able to:
High Accountability
 Clearly define results
 Create alignment around results
 Instill accountability to deliver results
 Sustain positive changes

8. How do successful organizations enable
their people to take ownership for
delivering on their intended results?
Joint Accountability
To be effective today,
supervisors must create
higher levels of ownership
and joint accountability to
achieve results

9. Key Shifts
Externalizing  Internalizing the Need
for Change
Blaming Others  Taking Accountability
Doing the Job  Achieving the Result
Working In Silos  Collaborating
Telling People What
To Do 
Engaging Hearts and
Minds

10. Most people are quite skilled at
recognizing the need for change
Externalizing vs. Internalizing
People naturally struggle, to define
themselves within the problem
Being accountable means “I’m part of the
problem, and part of the solution”

11. Human nature drives people
to blame others when things
are going wrong
Blaming Others vs. Taking
Accountability
Accountability channels the time, energy and
resources usually employed in the Blame
Game, into a consistent focus on the desired
organizational results

12. Most supervisors are fairly capable of
creating accountability for activity
levels
Doing the Job vs. Achieving the
Result
Less common is a supervisor who
has created accountability around
organizational results

13. Telling People What to Do vs. Engaging
the Hearts and Minds of People
Telling vs. Engaging
In the “Tell Me What to Do”
Culture employees check their
brains at the door, punch the
clock, and check off a list of
activities that define their job.

14. Most people view accountability as
something demeaning that happens
when performance declines, when
problems develop, or in failure
The Old View
Many think accountability arises when
something goes wrong or when
someone wants to isolate the cause -
to blame or point fingers

15. Consider the following alternative
definition of accountability:
The Alternative View
“A personal choice to rise above one’s
circumstances and demonstrate the
ownership necessary for achieving desired
results.”

16. This definition suggests a mindset or
attitude of continually asking, “What else
can I do to rise above my circumstances
and achieve the desired results?”
A New Mindset or Attitude
It involves a process of seeing, owning,
solving, and doing, and requires a level of
ownership that includes making, keeping,
and answering personal commitments

17. Clearly Defined Results

18. There is a doing difference
between - Doing the Job
and Achieving the Result
The Job vs. The Result
The first step towards
Creating a Culture of
Accountability is to
define clear results

19. This mindset leads people to believe if they
perform their functions, they’ve done what
they’re supposed to do, whether or not the
desired result was achieved.
Task Oriented
Accountability includes doing the
job and delivering the result. This
means the job is not done until the
desired result is achieved

20. The targeted result must be clear to
everyone on the team and then the
results must be shared
Creating Alignment
Each team member must
share accountability for
achieving the result

21. In alignment teams may have
some level of agreement - but
not necessarily agreement
Agreement is not Alignment
Alignment does not occur until people have
the opportunity and assume the
accountability to say what they really think
in a manner that lets them work issues
through and gain investment

22. The goal of alignment is to think and act as a
team. Alignment is not an event - it’s a
process. There are always forces working to
throw the team out of alignment
Think Like a Team
People will consistently produce
results if they have an aligned
team at the top - leading them

23. Creating clarity around results and
alignment around delivery reduces
time spent playing the Blame Game
Eliminating Blame
This is a crucial step in
creating higher levels of
accountability

24. Supervisors can promote a particular
decision in three important ways:
Promoting Decisions
• Advocating a decision translates to more
vigorous and proactive support
• Sponsoring a decision vocally and linking
your success to it success
• Championing a decision by actively
leading people in efforts to make it a success -
keeping it on the daily agenda

25. Below The Line is where
one sees the Blame Game,
where the focus is on why
results are unachievable
The Line
Above The Line is where attention
focuses on things that can be
controlled by taking the initiative to
identify and implement solutions

27. Below the Line is where the
focus is centered on what
cannot be controlled
Below the Line
People will feel victimized and
frustrated; they become frozen
in their actions with no desire to
advance

28. When individuals are Below the Line
they have a story explaining why they
cannot deliver
Below the Line
Focus on habits and
actions when desired
results aren’t achieved
and performance is
lacking

29. Above the Line, people have a story
about what measures were taken to
overcome the obstacles to achieve
the result
Above the Line
People asking, “What
else can I do?”

30. Focus on achieving results is
instead focused on explaining
and justifying why results are
not being delivered
Above the Line
Above the Line thinking
significantly improves
performance

31. Above and Below

32. Below the Line Thinking
1. In the spaces below add any related
“Below the Line” statements that you may
have heard recently
2. Select one or more of the statements and
rephrase it into an “Above the Line”
statement
3. Discuss with your partners on your team
Activity

33. The transition to accountability is
not an event, but a process
The Journey
What are some things that
you will do differently or be
more aware of, based on
our discussion

34. Thought
Comments
questions
The Beginning