There is only one of you, and you likely oversee several employees. There will be times when you are called upon to work more closely with a particular employee as a mentor, or times when you need to pick up the slack if an employee is struggling. However, you have your own job responsibilities each day beyond the management of your employees. So how can you find the right balance?

Your key to success is increasing the personal accountability of your employees. That looks good on paper, but what does it mean in practice?

4 Ways to Increase Personal Accountability

1. Increase Employee Freedom

If your employees have more room for creativity and space to grow, then they will be more likely to care about taking responsibility for their actions on the job. If you micromanage your employees, then they are likely to be less invested in their personal effectiveness as employees.

2. Encourage Employee Pride

Besides giving your employees room to grow and change, it is your job as a successful manager to encourage your employees to feel pride in their efforts at work. If an employee does excellent work, then be sure to give praise where it is due in order to encourage such personal effectiveness in the future. According to a recent Harvard Business Review blog post, it is crucial to help even strong employees feel pride in their work in order to keep them employed with your company.

3. Reinforce Employee Effort

Help your employees to see the result of their efforts by sharing the numbers with them. If they are part of a new campaign that results in a jump in revenue or a change in perception, be sure to share and discuss the data with those involved to help them see that their actions do matter. Having concrete information to help your employees make this connection can greatly increase personal accountability.

4. Chart Employee Progress

Keep data that reflects how each employee’s work has changed and improved over time. If this is too onerous in your field, consider encouraging employees to take an online personality test on a yearly basis as part of the annual review process, and use it as a tool to discuss how each employee has grown and changed over the last year. If you care about each employee as an individual, then they are more likely to care about their own personal accountability.

How do you foster personal accountability in your employees? Share your suggestions in the comments.