Ethical Accountability to Build Your Team

When you hear the word ‘accountability,’ what comes to mind?

For a lot of folks, it’s punishment, as in ‘held to account.”

It doesn’t need to be this dramatic. We’re all performing meaningful work tasks which, in some industries, can be very personal. That doesn’t mean that accountability in the workplace needs to be personally directed.

There are plans and ways to proceed that have nothing to do with outdated and stereotypical Strict Boss Man standards.

For mid- and upper-management, the day-to-day is no stranger to intense pressure, digital disruption, and a question of trust. To succeed, leaders must move beyond traditional command-and-control tactics and intentionally embed ethical leadership, tactful accountability, and appropriate flexibility into their operations.

This isn’t Earth-shattering news, so maybe the recommendations will be easier to implement.

1. The Imperative of Ethical Accountability

When ethical issues are known, very little substantive action is often taken to transform organizations toward a more ethical and sustainable culture. This lack of action is deeply problematic, as employees cite poor leadership, unethical behavior, and leaders acting in their own self-interests as key factors preventing an ethical culture. While this seems kind of horrible, put it in different terms, such as:

“Not my monkeys, not my circus.”

This kind of thinking creates a wonderfully reliable chasm between the person, and the actions around them. Frequently, the person’s actions (or lack of them) and the ethical actions are on opposite sides of this huge valley.

Tactful Accountability in Action

• Role Model the Right Behaviors: Leaders must role model ethical and sustainable culture from the inside out. This means adhering to the same standards expected of the team. Punctuality is an easy example. If a manager expects timeliness they must lead by example. It’s very tempting to apologize with a humblebrag, “Sorry I’m late, I got caught in a meeting with the higher-ups.” Incidentally, a one-off is much different than a pattern.

  
  

• Implement Visible Consequence Management: Poor behaviors must be called out, and organizations need visible consequence management. Accountability systems traditionally focused on easily observable metrics should be re-examined to encompass behavior-oriented measures that are essential for building a sustainable workplace culture. How many widgets are made is easy to count. How do you measure the benefits of people not hating coming to work? I’ve got ideas.

  
  

• Be Firm but Fair: There are cases when accountability is essentially punishment. For example, an employee gets removed from a project due to failure to observe the timeline, budget, or treat the clients with respect. More frequently, accountability involves a missed deadline or check-in. Assuming the employee doesn’t want to screw up, speaking with them to problem-solve rather than assign directives and consequences will go much farther in building strong relationships.

  
  

Which brings us to…

2. The Crisis of Trust and the Need for Flexibility

The trend toward efficiency and "unbossing" (flattening hierarchies) is putting immense pressure on remaining managers, who are already burned out, frustrated, and spending nearly 40% of their time firefighting or on administrative tasks. Simultaneously, employees are demanding flexibility, with 65% of office workers wanting more schedule flexibility. The future of work is not just remote or hybrid, it is microshifting. As you might guess, microshifting is breaking the workday into short, flexible blocks based on productivity and life demands.

When managed well, this is healthy for all employees. As more members of the newer generations hit the workforce, this kind of flexibility will be expected. Otherwise, many of them will just move on.

Manage Outcomes, Not Time

• Prioritize Trust Over Tracking: The biggest obstacle to microshifting and genuine flexibility is a lack of trust, where many leaders still equate visibility with productivity. Employees are willing to sacrifice 8–9% of their annual salary for flexible working hours, showing how much they value this autonomy. Leaders must stop managing time and start managing outcomes.

  
  

• Set Norms for Autonomy: Transparency is key when making flexibility decisions, coupled with humility and openness about what is being learned. Teams need clear norms for communication and availability to ensure collaboration doesn't break down when employees are microshifting.

  
  

• Ensure Equitable Flexibility: Flexibility must be accessible to all employees, not just knowledge workers. Companies should think creatively about how to offer it across different roles, perhaps through shift swapping, compressed schedules, or extended schedules.

  
  

3. Refocus on Sound Judgment and Coaching

Instead of eliminating management roles which simply adds to the burden of folks on staff and reduces the engagement of most people, organizations must refocus on what they actually need in their employees. The core capabilities of the reinvented manager must shift away from administration and towards high-value functions.

Cultivate the Manager’s Core Capabilities

The modernized manager must focus on three capabilities rooted in the crucial skill of sound judgment:

1. Develop, Coach, and Nurture People: This capability is crucial, as effective development can boost employee performance by as much as 27%. Organizations must require training and accreditation in managerial coaching skills and assess manager performance based on coaching effectiveness.

   
   

2. Redesign Work and Optimize Human-Machine Interactions: With the rise of AI, managers must take on the new role of redesigning work and helping people collaborate better with smart machines. They need to give workers open information about financial and strategic goals to provide the right context for work redesign.

   
   

3. Enable Agility and Strategic Problem-Solving: Managers are key to enabling a more decentralized and responsive organization. They must be empowered to make decisions and continuously strategically pivot in response to rapidly changing conditions.

   
   

All of these ideas and recommendations are accessible to business leaders and companies of all sizes. The only question is whether the investment in change now is worth having the same problems later with no solution in sight.

This isn’t a Trolley Problem where there are only bad options. It’s more analogous to “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”