Leadership development programs can have significant costs in terms of time and money. They’re procured not as entertainment, but as vehicles for vital learning. So it’s reasonable for executives to expect that the participants of these programs actually improve the skills that are the focus of these programs. Executives are responsible for planning and supporting the best programs they can, including a structured program of follow-up. Participants have a responsibility, too, which is to make a good-faith effort to improve their behavior patterns.

In other words, both the organization and the learner are accountable—the organization for invests in and supporting high-quality training and follow-up reinforcement programs, and the participants for improving their behavior patterns. When participants know they’ll have to show evidence of improved performance, their motivation to work on performance issues increases significantly.

Here are some effective methods for establishing accountability.

Accountability to the organization. The best method I know about is a behavior-based pre-course assessment, followed by an identical post-course assessment nine to twelve months later. To be effective, the pre-course/post-course assessment should have two features:

• The assessment should employ 360-degree performance feedback, which measures not what people know, but what they do on the job. Because the process consolidates scaled ratings and comments from a variety of people who work closely with the participant, the benchmark is as objective an assessment of leader skills as possible, which are otherwise hard to measure.
• The items of the assessment should use behavior-based descriptions of the key skills that are the focus of the training. A technology such as 20/20 Insight GOLD makes onsite survey customization a simple procedure. Feedback givers can then be asked to rate and comment about the participants’ performance of these behaviors. The consolidated feedback can be presented to the participants, summary statistics may be given to supervisors, and group summary statistics may be given to the HR department.

Administered before training begins, the assessment highlights areas of relative strength and weakness. This helps participants to understand the true focus of the training, what the desired behaviors are, and what they need to work on most. Knowing that the same assessment will be administered in the future, learners show up for training with a special motivation to learn.

Accountability to the boss. Before training begins, the individual and his or her boss can meet to discuss the strengths and weaknesses that were identified in the feedback. The boss doesn’t need to review all the details of the feedback; a simple one-page summary is enough for the two of them to agree on what the individual needs to focus on most during training. They can also discuss development goals and follow-up reinforcement strategies. When both the boss and the direct report know what’s expected, a realistic individual development plan becomes a powerful element of accountability.

Accountability to the team. Motivation and accountability increase when an individual informs coworkers what aspects of performance he or she will be working on during training and follow-up. Essentially, the individual makes a public acknowledgement of the need to improve, outlines his or her development goal, expresses a commitment to work hard at it, and asks for the support of coworkers. This can be communicated in any number of ways, including individual person-to-person meetings, team meetings, email or a private web forum. Making stakeholders aware of one’s commitment to improved performance means that the individual’s credibility is at stake. He or she must now deliver. The same kind of sharing and accountability can be established with mentors, coaches and other people who support the learner’s goals.

Because accountability exists in context, it sharpens learner interest in and commitment to all four aspects of reinforcement:
- Ongoing learning
- Ongoing feedback
- Coaching
- Accountability

Also, since leadership skills are inherently difficult to measure, multi-rater feedback plays a central roll in each level of accountability. In my opinion, the best approach is to employ all levels of accountability. Each type includes its own kind of support and sparks a special kind of motivation; and learners will need plenty of that to persist through the awkwardness, embarrassment and discouragement that are likely to occur during the months of effort it will take to ingrain improved leadership skills.

- Dennis E. Coates, Ph.D., CEO, Performance Support Systems, creator of 20/20 Insight GOLD
- Dave Erdman, President, Vital Learning Corporation, publishers of The Supervision Series

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