As a manager, you want your team to perform their best and hit organizational goals, but sometimes it can be challenging to hold employees accountable without coming across as strict or micromanaging.
You’re not alone in this. In fact, most organizations and managers lack an accountability culture. Data shows that 82% of managers acknowledge they have “limited to no” ability to hold others accountable successfully, and 91% of employees say that “effectively holding others accountable” is one of their company’s top leadership development needs.
The importance of accountability cannot be overstated, and it we should aspire to making it a core value in our organizations.
In this article, you will learn 4 actionable tips to help hold your employees accountable as individuals and 4 tips to instill accountability into your team's DNA and culture.
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4 Tips to Drive Accountability in Individuals
Tip 1: Set Your Expectations Clearly
It’s nearly impossible - and unfair - to hold people accountable if they don’t quite understand what’s expected of them. This first step is critical. 90% of employees don’t really understand what their organization is trying to accomplish, which makes it difficult to grasp the importance of meeting one’s own targets.
Be concrete about what outcome you’re looking for from your reports’ day-to-day tasks, how you’re measuring success, and how they might start making progress.
For instance, if you’re assigning a new project to your report, you could say, “I need you to deliver a cost-benefit analysis for this project by Friday next week. The report should be no more than 5 pages long and include your recommendations for how we should proceed.”
Part of setting clear expectations is also setting good quality goals which are specific, measurable, and actionable. For a deep dive into goal setting, read this article about ‘Career Conversation Tips and Questions to Engage Employees’. Jump to ‘Part 2: During the Conversation’ to see tips on goal setting.
Tip 2: Design the Check-Ins Up Front
Talk to your employees about when you’d like to get some visibility into their progress and how you’d like to see it.
You might say “ I would like an email with an update on your progress for this project each week so I have visibility into how to support you and have the updates I need to share with our stakeholders. When would it work for you to send that? ”
When you explain the ‘why’ behind the progress reports and you and your report design the check-in process together, it will feel more collaborative and intentional, and won’t veer into micro-management territory.
Tip 3. Break Down Goals
Break down goals into smaller bites with more frequent milestones so there’s a clear and consistent roadmap. This will make it easier for folks to hit their goals and help build momentum. This is particularly important for remote folks where there are fewer serendipitous moments to check in.
For instance, if your report wants to obtain a professional certification in the next six months, break it down into smaller milestones such as researching the certification requirements, determine the study materials needed, create a study plan, take practice exams, and schedule the actual exam date.
Tip 4. Write It All Down
I’d suggest having a shared document where expectations, milestones, progress, and feedback are written down and kept up-to-date. Having a shared document, whether you use GoogleDocs or something else, adds visibility for both managers and reports which drives accountability.
4 Tips to Instill Team Accountability
Tip 1: Be a Good Role Model
Folks on your team will take your lead so model what you expect from them! Hit your deadlines, follow through on commitments, be prepared, and show up on time.
Eighty-four percent of employees say the way leaders behave is the single most important factor influencing accountability in their organizations.
Yet just 15% of leaders have successfully defined and broadly communicated their own key results. You can’t expect your team to take accountability seriously if you don’t demonstrate it yourself.
If you fall short - you are only human, after all! - make sure you own that and apologize. Owning a miss or mistake demonstrates vulnerability and can build psychological safety on your team.
Tip 2: Don’t Tell, Coach
The best type of accountability comes from a sense of ownership and control. Avoid telling your employees what to do and solving their problems for them. Give them enough space to take responsibility and feel a sense of ownership. Your aim is to ask open-ended questions like “How might you go about solving this”, “Where do you think we should improve the process?” and “What do you think is the best way to proceed?”
Tip 3: Praise Behavior That Demonstrates Accountability
When you see someone demonstrating accountability, acknowledge and praise it. It’s really important to reinforce the behaviors you want to see more of!
For example, "I'm so grateful that you made the effort to get your goals in on time for quarterly planning. I appreciate that I can depend on you and it demonstrates to me that you take the planning process seriously. Thank you!”
I highly recommend reading '30 Positive Feedback Examples That Motivate Employees' to learn how to praise effectively.
Tip 4: Show You’re Serious
Keep your bar high and don’t ignore poor performance, hoping that it might take care of itself. If you don’t address poor performance, not only will the team not hit their targets, you’re sending a message to the rest of your team that it’s okay to not be accountable. It can be very demotivating as a high performer on a team where low performance is ignored.
“Nothing will kill a great employee faster than watching you tolerate a bad one.” - Perry Belcher, co-founder of DigitalMarketer.com, investor, and marketing guru.
Give your team quality, constructive feedback and make sure this goes both ways. Ask for feedback from your team or run anonymous surveys to get better data on employee engagement. Contrary to how it might feel, showing you’re serious about high performance is motivating and energizing for your team and they’ll respect you more for it.
As a final thought, when you genuinely commit to your team’s success and focus less on being the guard dog, you’ll find it a lot easier to offer feedback, set the bar high for performance, and address situations that don’t meet that bar. People will want to work hard if they feel that they are in an environment that gives them a sense of dignity, support and pride in their work.
Free ‘Managing Performance’ Training Plan
To help managers build a culture of accountability and drive performance effectively, I have put together a free resource that teaches the fundamental principles and critical skills you need to know.
This resource includes a solid collection of 5-10 minute videos focusing on:
- How to Drive Accountability
- How to Manage Poor Performance
- How to Let Someone Go With Grace
- How to Set Goals
- How to Have Tough Conversations
- Running Effective Performance Reviews
- How to Give Feedback
- How to Give Praise
