Let's right the ship.

• Author: Miller, Julie
• Position: Business & Finance - Essay

"Make 2016 the year you and your employees dedicate yourselves to accountability."

AS A LEADER at your organization, you like to think that you run a pretty tight ship but, if you are being honest with yourself, you know that you let a few things slide in 2015: a missed deadline here and there; a few tiny white lies to clients; the fact that Mike in marketing often overcommits and underdelivers; your own tendency to talk over others in meetings. In other words, people (you included) have not always done what they are supposed to do or behaved like they should have--and they have gotten away with it.

None of these transgressions have been deal-breakers. Yet, you know that if you do not start holding yourself and your employees accountable for these little things, they eventually will lead to bigger, more damaging sins. That is why one of the best New Year's resolutions you can make is around the "a" word --accountability.

Accountability is a tricky business because it has different meanings for different people. We have a definition we learned that we like very much: "a personal willingness, after the fact, to answer for the results of your behaviors and actions."

With that in mind, think about where you and your people dropped the ball in 2015 in terms of client relations, personal integrity, and interactions with coworkers. More important, did any of you answer for these lapses? You can post core values on the company website and remind your employees about them via the company newsletter until you are blue in the face but, if none of you are ever held accountable to these behaviors, you will just repeat 2015's transgressions over and over again.

Of course, you might be thinking: we have tried making accountability stick before, and all those initiatives just melted away over time, and that is what will happen this time. Remember, you cannot create an accountable organization in passing. Buy-in must come from everyone. Accountability must be woven into the fabric of your organization. It has to become a part of every aspect of your business. What is needed is a "make-it-stick" plan:

Conduct a 2015 accountability post-mortem. Despite the accountability failures of 2015, it is very possible that no one at your organization thinks they are doing anything wrong. Maybe they never actually have been told that they need to change how they do things. That is why you should kick off your 2016 accountability revolution with a meeting of the minds.

Call your team together for an open discussion of the company's core values and required behaviors and where you have come up short. Explain that no one will get in trouble for acknowledging their own shortcomings or even pointing out those of others. Ask people to share the negative effects they believe these behaviors had on the business and explain that those negatives only will get worse with time.

Set the stage by taking responsibility for your own transgressions. This, in turn, will encourage others to be honest. Finally, explain that things are going to be done differently in the upcoming year. Use this meeting to get consensus on what the core values and behaviors need to be to support the company's strategies and goals for 2016, and emphasize that everyone, starting with the key leaders, will be held accountable for demonstrating them.

Hold an accountability boot camp early in the year. However you go about making...