Accountability

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Crystal gallery
Vision To be recognized as the most successful provider of corporate services of high quality standards in the awards and recognition industry through committed and quick customer service. Mission We, at Crystal Gallery, aim to attain a pioneering position in rendering products and services in the domain of crystal ware. We are keen on establishing our presence at all corporate, entertainment and sports events here in UAE and abroad. By reviving the traditional and never-dying art of handcrafting in crystal, coupled with the latest technology, we are committed to deliver high quality products, superior customer service and after sales support. We are keen to expand our retail presence by opening more stores and kiosks in UAE, thereby promoting the artistry of crystal craftsmanship. We will nurture and develop our human resources through continuous and positive encouragement to reach optimum productivity. It is our continuing endeavor through team work to maintain the high standards set out to achieve our goals.

Values "Our Success has been based on our drive, determination, strong work ethics and our desire to produce the most creative designs. We pride ourselves in meeting the most demanding client requirements in record time and without any compromise on Quality". Jafer Sura, Chairman The following values are held important to us at Crystal Gallery: Work on principles based on dedication and creativity Non- compromise to quality Nurture and develop our most valuable assets - our people Support community by contributing to the charitable and social welfare associations Encourage and reward outstanding effort and hard work Respect of the local culture

7 Ways to Build Accountable Organizations

Dont you love that employee who goes above and beyond? She takes responsibility, shows initiative and really owns her projects, processes and problems. Somewhere along the line, she learned that good things happen when you are accountable. But its largely up to you, her boss, to be sure she doesnt have a change of heart. But, you say, accountability is intrinsic! You cant force people to be accountable! True, but we learn from the people around us. When the work environment is designed for accountability, it will flourish. When its not, youll get stellar work from a few people until they stop making the effort or leave for another job. An accountable workplace wont appear overnight, but the right elements must be in place. Where do you need to invest your time and attention to build an environment of accountability? 1. Clear roles, team leadership and individual ownership. People struggle to be accountable when roles and processes are ambiguous. Removing as much confusion as possible about who is doing what and how they will proceed is an important step. If a team is truly accountable, members will identify gaps, learn new roles and processes, and ultimately build a more capable team. 2. A sense of ownership for team results. How does team accountability work? Focus on team processes. How is the team working toward goals and outcome? Are team members effective? Do they feel 100 percent accountable to improving the process? Each member should have the obligation to seek information, give and receive feedback and point out the need for corrective action at any time. 3. Freedom, support and control to navigate competing priorities. Most problems have multiple right answers, so give people the freedom and control they need to make decisions. The first solutions your teams and direct reports come up with will probably be pretty good. Improve upon them instead of inserting your own. Support is the key be sure people have the resources, knowledge and assistance they need. With this approach, team members increase their skills, confidence and ownership. 4. Its not about punishment. If your goal in fostering accountability is to know who to punish when revenue targets are not met or budgets are missed, you will only succeed in creating fear. No one will be willing to step up, speak out or try something new. Innovation and risk taking will be lost. Once the rumor mill of an organization circulates a story of someone stepping out and being punished,

hundreds, even thousands, of other employees will be skittish about taking initiative to find solutions. 5. Its about improvement. Accountability is the foundation for creating a learning organization. If you want sustainable high-quality processes, you need to be able to see whats working and what isnt and analyze the cause. To that end, each person needs to honestly say what they knew, what they thought and what they did (or didnt do). One important thing you can do to support a learning atmosphere is to take a systems approach as well as holding individuals accountable. Seek to understand what aspects of the situation have influenced the process, system, culture or circumstances. 6. The expectation of evaluation. In accountable organizations, no one expects to stay under the radar. In fact, people seek feedback because they know it is intended to improve the process and add to their knowledge. These organizations use multiple forms of feedback and evaluation to assess the health and success of a manager, process or department. Organizations lacking multiple feedback mechanisms only discover shortcomings when it is too late. 7. Integrity counts. People are called out if they dont do what they say they will do. When anyone falls short, they admit it and work to improve. Someone consistently falling short? A sure sign of low commitment and a clue that something is missing in your culture of accountability.

How to improve accountability

Biometric Devices - such as fingerprint and retinal scanners, allow an employee to clock-in and out for their shifts at work through one of their physical traits. For an employee to be held accountable for their shift, they will have to be present at work in order to sign in/out. Since these devices require the use of an individuals physical characteristics, it ensures that each employee that is present will be accounted for. Biometric devices also help to eliminate employee time theft or buddy punching.

Time and Attendance Software - When you pair biometric devices with a time and attendance software, it allows for much more efficient attendance processing. Once an employee clocks-in for a shift, the information is recorded into the device, and can then be uploaded onto the time and attendance software allowing for accurate tracking of employee attendance. More employees will be accountable for their shifts with more accurate tracking and fewer attendance errors.

SMART Goals - A great way to foster accountability in the workplace is to have your employees set SMART goals for themselves. SMART goals are specific, measurable, achievable, results-oriented and time-bound. Having goals that meet these criteria will allow your employees to feel more able in the work they are doing. It is a way for them to measure their own productivity.

Team Incentive Programs: Team incentive programs will allow employees to motivate themselves to reach their highest accountability and potential. Your employees will work together towards completing common goals, and will be compensated for going above and beyond the goals set out for them.

Prioritization: One reason why employee accountability dwindles, is because employees struggle to balance tasks and goals and eventually become overwhelmed and unable to complete their tasks on time. As a manager of a business, it is important to help your employees prioritize their responsibilities in relation to your companys overall goals. Helping to prioritize will allow your employees to feel more organized and competent in the tasks they are assigned.

Monitor Progress: Monitoring your employees progress will help motivate them to be more productive and accountable. It is only natural that when we know someone is watching our progress that we will try to perform to our best abilities. Along with monitoring employee progress, it is equally important to share progress reports with them so they may learn what areas need more attention and what areas they are excelling in.

Appoint process champions. Especially for activities that cut across different parts of the company, process champions will have end-to-end responsibility for achieving the desired metrics. These are difficult roles to play since they often come without full authority for all of the resources, but they are a step in the direction of single accountability for dispersed activities.

Almost all organizations talk about the importance of accountability, but making it happen isn't so easy. What's your experience?

Personal Accountability in the Workplace Personal accountability at work can encompass everything from employees being accountable for themselves, making themselves indispensable, to managers and people in leadership roles showing personal accountability in order to foster an environment of accountability in the office with their employees. If you are not in a management role, demonstrating accountability at work will prove that you are a valuable asset to the company and it will make you an indispensable commodity. If you are a manager or in a management position, displaying personal accountability will help build a culture of accountability in your company. Your employees will watch as you create an acceptance and understanding of accountability, and will more than likely follow your actions. Knowing that personal accountability is something that even the management is responsible for will help employees feel balanced and bonded through that shared responsibility.

The 5 Step Formula for Improving Accountability

By guest blogger, Bea Fields, President of Bea Fields Companies, Inc. When is John going to get me that report?What is going on with the marketing report? When are they going to finish that thing?I cant believe Mary is so late in making those phone calls.Okaywho dropped the ball this time?Heythats not MY job.Does this sound familiar? If so, your small business team may be faced with a big challenge with accountability, which results in finger pointing, frustration and broken trustboth with your employees and your customers. Personal responsibility and accountability can put an end to the blame game, saving your business thousands if not millions of dollars by increasing productivity and overall job satisfaction, which results in very satisfied customers. These five basic approaches can support you in increasing accountability, which are simple, yet they require actually building a culture of accountability for your business. 1. Communicate the big picture Accountability stands a better chance of succeeding if everyone in your business embraces a larger responsibility for the success of the entire company. Spend time talking individually with team members about how his or her project affects the vision and mission of the business. With this communication, people can make wiser decisions from the context of the big picture rather than from the perspective of what may seem to be a detailed and boring task. 2. State clear expectations If one person on your team does not meet your expectations, the entire team can fail. It is important from the very beginning of any new project to state the expectations clearly and repeat them over and over again until your team really gets it. These expectations need to be crystal clear, including dates, who is responsible for what, the details of the task and how you want the finished product delivered. If your expectations are fuzzy or confusing in any way, your team can break down, and the fine and very important details can fall through the cracks. 3. Accountability work groups One of the best ways to achieve accountability is to develop shared accountability among team members. Accountability within the team can be accomplished by what Morris R. Shechtman calls accountability groups, groups which give team members the permission to speak and listen in a way which is frank and open. This accountability group can include 2-5 people and can then serve as a small unit of people working together to confide in with struggles, weaknesses and insecurities. They can then find creative strategies to work together in the direction of the growth the team intends to achieve. 4. Move to action In order for accountability to work, people have to know that failure of completion will come with certain consequences, including written warnings, loss of a bonus or extra hours served on a week-end to complete the project on the table. Without consequences, your employees wont take you seriously. They will think that they can use blame, justification and rationalization as a way to deviate from being responsible, because you have not followed through on what you said you will do if the tasks are not achieved.

5. Reward and recognition program Employees need to know in a tangible way their efforts are indeed driving the company forward, and it is important for them to share in the fruits of their hard work. The offer of increased pay and benefits (vacations, time off and other perks) can keep accountability and morale high and can motivate employees to continue to strive for high levels of performance.

Let's Bring Back Accountability

by Deborah Mills-Scofield

From customers' and suppliers' viewpoint, Company X is fast growing, exciting, and high-energy. Inside, though, it's a tornado. Fighting fires, arguing over who committed to what, why it didn't happen, and noticing things that fell through the cracks in just enough time is normal. How can this happen when they have weekly departmental meetings, keep track of action items, and post projects and timelines everywhere? Easily! There is no accountability. They don't hold each other accountable for commitments. They've seen what happens when you fail, and it isn't pretty, which undermines individual commitment. Requesters frequently change their minds, reprioritize, or create new, more urgent projects without ever really closing the loop on the old ones. The Bell Labs culture I grew up in had a strong sense of accountability. When you're working on things that literally change the world, it's easy to be committed to something bigger than yourself. The "Labs" culture meant failure was a viable option. Success was discovery and application, not climbing a corporate ladder. At AT&T, the culture was the opposite. While I was privileged to have great management, the majority of AT&T focused on the bottom line. Failure was not an option. When I left AT&T and started working with many companies, I realized this culture was more the norm, not Bell Labs. That's why I believe culture creates (at least?) two reasons for people's struggle with accountability. First is the fear of failure. Even before kindergarten, we're taught failure is bad. What if we can't do it or do it right or something goes wrong? So, we whittle down the scope, involve others so blame can be shared, make resource requests we know won't fly, or let our fear hold us back from really creative solutions. Since "failure is not an option" is still the modus operandi in most organizations and the odds of success are never certain, accepting accountability can be very risky. What if I can't deliver? What if the people I need to work with won't make the time or collaborate? What if factors I can't control impede or inhibit success? Will I get a poor performance appraisal? Will I lose prestige, status, or my promotion? If there is a downturn, am I going to get cut? Unfortunately, these are natural, normal responses to accountability. Accountability means putting our word and reputation on the line. Someone is counting on us and we should care that someone is counting on us. If failure's not an option, that can feel like too much of responsibility or a liability to take on. The second problem is a lack of commitment on either or both sides. Either we don't believe the request is important enough to make us change our priorities, or we don't trust the "asker" to keep his end of the commitment. If the requester keeps changing his mind, his priorities or timelines, then it's tough to accept accountability

for the outcome. Trade-offs have to be made which means sacrifice of time, priorities, perhaps things we are passionate about. Accountability works both ways, and if one party isn't really committed, it can undermine the entire project. Realities of 21st century business make accountability even more daunting. In the "old" days, a commitment's path to success was fairly clear, linear, defined and prescriptive: follow this framework or process, and you'll get there. Today, the path is usually messy, ambiguous, paradoxical, and maybe unknown. We may need to create our own frameworks and processes. It's a discovery, not a prescriptive process, with many ways to get where we're going, not "a" way to succeed. Success itself has changed; it used to be via a tangible output, a new product or service, a "thing" based more on what was probable than possible. Success today can be both tangible and intangible, like new learnings, viewpoints, networks, or opportunities, where we look for what is not just probable, but possible. So, how do we help our cultures, ourselves, our people overcome the fear of failure and commit in a uncertain world? I have a few suggestions based on my experience in both accountable, and unaccountable, company cultures:

Communicate100. Communicate why the request is important to the organization, to both of you, and how it's fulfillment will make a difference. What may seem trivial to us may be profound to someone else. To commit, we need to believe in something bigger than just ourselves or the organization, such as the mission and purpose of the organization. That is how we start changing behavior and making new habits. Make sure that you're present to support the request and remove or mitigate obstacles. Meet regularly to identify potential challenges and opportunities before they become a major problem. Re-prioritize responsibilities and tasks to allow the person or team to complete the request. Don't just add on. Not everything is urgent and important. Seriously, show your commitment to the request you've made. If it's not worth re-prioritizing, then it isn't worth asking. Create ways to eliminate or minimize the stigma of failure. Focus on what's been learned and how that applies, watch how you react to and treat the person, how you discuss it with others affected by the result and how you let it impact that person's future success in the organization. Even if you can't change the organization's performance management process, your own personal demeanor and handling has an enormous impact.

I've also started to experiment with using the classic virtues to help improve accountability, but don't have enough data' to posit it as a suggestion above yet (though it can't hurt). Accountability is important on so many levels professionally and personally. Let's create the environment where it's easier to have it be the norm than not.

Encourage me more. When we asked the unhappy 6% to name the skill they thought was most important for their boss to demonstrate, the top response was "Inspire and motivate others." Too often, managers take a negative tone with disgruntled employees. Expecting that efforts to motivate will be ignored, none are proffered, and the expectations become self-fulfilling. But our data suggest managers should take the opposite view: Work harder to inspire this group. Keep the conversation positive. Expect the best, not the worst. Trust me more. It's probably not surprising that both parties unhappy employee and boss alike distrust each other. The key to restoring trust is to operate with the belief that the other party can change. Here we'd suggest the manager make the first move by making the effort to understand the employee's problems. Then, as both parties work on their relationship, they must strive for consistency that is, the manager must strive to treat all employees equitably, and both parties must strive to reliably do what they say they will do. Over time, trust will grow. Take an interest in my development. If a person works hard and gets a pay check he has a job. But if a person works hard, gets a pay check, and learns a new skill, she has a career. Career development should not be focused only on the high-potentials. As counterintuitive as it may seem, don't leave the underachievers out when distributing stretch assignments. Keep me in the loop. Communication is fundamentally a management function, so this responsibility rests squarely with the managers. Great communicators do three things well. First, they share information and keep everyone well informed. Second, they ask good questions, inviting the opinions and views from others all others. Third, they listen. And not just to the people they like. Be more honest with me. People want to know how they're really doing on the job and the one's not in favor perhaps even more than the one's feeling the warm glow of approval. They want to know why they're falling short. They want a chance to improve. Too often, though, the bottom 6% felt their bosses were not giving honest feedback, glossing over problems with comments like "You're coming along fine," when clearly they were not. What's more, many reported promises being made ("if you finish this project on time then...") that were not kept. Honesty is the bedrock of good relationships. Connect with me more. Anything managers can to do improve their relationship with the disgruntled employees will have a significant

positive influence. Here's where favoritism takes on its most concrete form: managers go to lunch more with people they like, our data show; they talk with them more socially (about children, sports, etc); they know them more personally. This is natural, surely, but so are the feelings of exclusion it creates among the less favored. A small effort by managers to spread their attention around more broadly can go a long way here. As leaders, our knee-jerk reaction to unfavored (and disgruntled) employees is often "It's their own fault!" Our research shows this is not always (and often not wholly) the case. Before you settle for letting your dissatisfied people go and cost your organization thousands of dollars in employee turnover, take a moment to consider how these performers need to be treated. If not for their sake, then for everyone else's sake. Research by the University of British Columbia recently published in the Journal of Human Resources has shown that those who witness workplace bullying become equally disgruntled as the victims and just as likely to quit. All employees need leaders who know how to inspire and motivate them, give them opportunities for development, and treat them with the respect and dignity they each deserve. A third of a person's life is spent in the workplace, sometimes more. When the environment is created by an extraordinary leader who cares about everyone's development, it leaves employees with little room to complain.