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When it comes to accountability, it’s not enough to chant the slogan around the office and hope people get it. Asserting that you’re the type of boss who holds people accountable isn’t enough to do the trick. Your team must trust and believe that there is a fair and accurate process for keeping track of their actions and tying their behavior to real consequences.
For example, imagine your boss came in tomorrow morning and said, “If you do a great job today, I am going to give you a $1,000 bonus. If you do an average job, you get to keep your job. If you do a bad job today, you are fired.” There are three things you would want to know.
First, you would want to know exactly what a great job, an average job, and a bad job look like. Second, you would want to know that someone is keeping a close eye on your performance, so it isn’t overlooked when you do a great job. Third, you’d want to ensure your performance is measured based on the expectations that were spelled out up front—and nothing else.
Managers need a fair and accurate process for tying real consequences to each employee’s real concrete actions. That process doesn’t have to be complicated:
- Spell out expectations in advance.
- Track employee performance every step of the way.
- Follow through with real consequences based on whether the employee’s actual performance meets those expectations or not.
Establishing accountability cannot be done once or twice a year, during formal performance evaluations. It must be done up close and often.
Don’t let real-world complications get in the way.
In the real world, however, there are many complications that make it nearly impossible to maintain an airtight process linking individual actions to consequences. But don’t let those complications become excuses for not practicing real accountability.
In most organizations today, managers must compete for an employee’s time and energy. When you give a direct report an assignment, it’s not always clear how many other assignments that person is juggling or whether an urgent assignment from another person will interfere with completing an assignment on time for you.
How can you hold an employee accountable in this case?
A senior manager in a large media company, Phil, had a conversation-stopping answer to this question: “I am absolutely determined to be the manager that employees do not want to disappoint. Everybody knows you don’t accept an assignment from me unless you can complete it to my specifications. I am the one who is going to follow up, follow up, follow up. There is nowhere to hide from me. I will come to find you. Unless you are on your deathbed, you had better have an answer for me.”
Looking around the room, it was clear from his colleagues’ reactions that this was true. Everybody knew Phil was that manager.
There are four lessons to take from Phil and other bosses like him.
- Be the boss who is most engaged, and you will be the boss to whom your employees are most responsive. If they know you will follow up, monitor, measure, document, and insist on accountability, they will put assignments for you first.
- Be the boss who sets up employees for success and rewards them accordingly. If people know they will get something valuable, even out of a demanding assignment, the best employees will want to work for you.
- Be the boss who understands what other projects someone is juggling for other managers. Ask lots of questions about other tasks and deadlines. Talk about how your assignment might interfere with that person’s other work. Decide together whether they will be able to meet your requirements. Make a plan for how they will respond if any other responsibility interferes with meeting your deadline or requirements.
- Be the boss who sets higher expectations and standards. If other managers who are your peers have fundamentally different expectations, standards, and requirements for employees, remind your direct reports regularly and enthusiastically that you are different. Make it a point of pride. Let the people on your team appreciate your especially high standards and make that part of a culture of high outcomes you all share.
