The Accountability Factor

February 18th, 2008 Posted in Management

My observation is that many managers simply don’t know how to implement change. 

What do you do if people don’t enter information into your client contact system?  What do you do if reports are incomplete or missing all together?  Do they get fired? 

Everyone wants to be liked.  No one wants to be the bad-guy.  So instead of holding employees accountable, and gaining respect by demonstrating leadership, a manager may try to be everyone’s friend, ignore the “slips” and hope for respect that way.  It never works.  The employee will continue to under-perform when what they really need is a strong hand to mentor them and mould them into the type of employee your business needs.

If you set rules for the team, they should apply to the whole team, not just particular members.  Some managers have a bad habit of allowing good performers some slack while holding others accountable.  What they are doing is sending a message to their team that if you perform well you don’t have to be as accountable.

This is not to say you shouldn’t reward performers. You should – in a way that sends the right message to the rest of the team.

Maybe you are the cause of the problem.  Perhaps because you have been too lenient on your people or maybe you inherited the situation from a previous manager who didn’t want to offend anyone by being too harsh.  Regardless, it’s your problem now.

So – what to do…?

Before you consider replacing anyone, I recommend you try to rectify the situation by helping him or her change their behaviour.  Arrange a meeting to outline the issues and ask for ideas about how to make the changes.  Use the following three-step process for uncovering and solving problems.

1. First get general agreement from the person as to what the problem is.  Then ask what he or she thinks are the causes?  Let the person talk.  Keep your views to yourself.  It’s his problem and you want him to uncover the reason for it.
2. Next ask what can be done to minimise or eliminate the problem?  Let the other person come up with solutions.  You may be surprised.  If nothing else, try to negotiate rather than mandate a solution.  If you are taking action on his ideas rather than yours, good things are more likely to happen.
3. Finally set firm, achievable and measurable goals so the employee can demonstrate their progress on eliminating the problem.

After the meeting summarise your agreements in writing.  That way there can be no doubt later about what was agreed.

In summary, if you have set reasonable targets and some of your people aren’t meeting them, first try to correct the problem through counselling, coaching or training.  If that doesn’t work, then make them understand it is ‘your way or the highway’.

If all else fails replace them.  Do everything you can to make it work but, in the end, you have to do what is right for your business.