At the risk of sounding cliché, without accountability- there is no management. But what is it exactly, don’t confuse accountability for responsibility. Accountability and responsibility are related of course, but when you are looking at them from the point of view of managing employee performance- the difference is oversight. Accountability is when an individual or organization’s performance will be evaluated against something for which they are responsible. The key word is “against”, meaning it will be held up and compared to a metric and a standard.

Why do you need both though a metric and a standard? The metric is the unit of measurement, while the standard is the level of expected performance. Think of a long jumper at the Olympic trials. Long-jumpers are judged by the distance they can jump from the takeoff board. These amazing athletes begin from a running start and literally takeoff from a board at a very high rate of speed to gauge how far they can jump. It is an incredible test of speed, agility, and strength. The metric is how far they can jump. In their sport however, they themselves set the standard. You see, on a given Olympic qualifying year many of these athletes come from colleges and universities from across the country to compete- but only twelve of them will make the US Olympic Team. Each jumper has three attempts to jump as far as they can, and their best jump is held up against all other competitors. The twelve who jumped the farthest are extended an invitation to join the Olympic team.

Standards define the level of performance that must be achieved of a given metric to be considered acceptable. Without standards, every athlete that tried out for the Olympic long-jump competition would get invited to represent the United States at the games! Anyone could make the team. This is an important aspect of employee performance that gets overlooked. Performance in and of itself is a neutral term, it isn’t until it is held up to a standard that employee performance can be evaluated. What we see in some corporate environments is well-intentioned job descriptions describing the skills necessary to perform a given job, and even some of the typical tasks an employee filling the role will have to perform- but not a standard of performance. That will work for recruiting talent, but managing said talent, you’ll need to go further and define the metrics and standards your new hire will need to perform at- and communicate them to him or her clearly if you want them to succeed.