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INDIANAPOLIS BUSINESS JOURNAL
Small Biz
VOL. 28 NO. 29, SEPTEMBER 24-30, 2007
Leadership
Good leaders hold employees
accountable for their actions
By CJ McClanahan
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I earn a living teaching corporate managers how to become better leaders and build teams of effective leaders. I've read all the popular leadership books, listened to the audio CDs, written numerous articles and attended the best seminars. I am passionate about becoming an expert in the art of influencing the behavior of others. That's why this next story is a little embarrassing.
I have a 4-year-old son, Ian, who has developed quite a knack for figuring out how to manipulate his dad. The other night, I threatened (for about the 10th time) to put him to bed without reading him any books if he didn't brush his teeth THIS VERY MINUTE!
My wife, Nicole, pulled me aside and calmly asked me the following question, "Dear (it may have been another word), have you ever put him to bed without reading him his books?" I gently reminded her that I didn't enforce the rule because I really enjoyed our time together right before bed. While she empathized with my reasoning, she pointed out that as long as Ian knew that my threat of "no books before bed" was unlikely to occur, then he wouldn't let this threat deter his disobedience.
This humbling experience reminded me of an important lesson in leadership: If you don't consistently hold subordinates accountable for their actions, it will be very difficult to modify their behavior.
If my experience has taught me anything, it's that business leaders at every level do a terrible job of consistently holding people accountable for their actions. You might get mad from time to time or rush through an occasional performance review, but I guarantee that your direct reports will argue that your record of holding them accountable is unpredictable at best.
So, what is the result of this unpredictability? You hear it all the time: "I didn't realize you wanted me to get you that report every Friday," or maybe "I was just too busy this week to get all my work done" or the very popular "I forgot." In fact, I recently heard an employee indicate that his poor performance was due to the fact that he was "tired" and in a "slump." He assured my client that he would soon "snap out of it."
Why do your direct reports consistently provide you with these excuses time and time again? The reason is that there are no consistent and predictable consequences for their behavior. In the defense of your staff, it's very difficult to take your rules seriously when they are rarely enforced.
Why do you continue to allow this behavior to take place in your office week after week? There are two main reasons, and they apply to almost any company regardless of size or industry:
It takes time to consistently hold people accountable, and you're too busy.
Most leaders dislike uncomfortable conversations and holding people accountable almost always involves an uncomfortable conversation.
The best way to address this challenge is to put a system in place that ensures that you deliver the same guidance in nearly every situation. Developing and rolling out this system doesn't need to be complex, involve a lot of complicated forms or even a highly paid consultant. However, it does require discipline and consistency.
First, you need to start by understanding the professional goals of each of your employees. In other words, get a clear answer to the following question: "Fast forward five years in the future and your career has gone exactly as you planned-what happened?" Understanding these goals will allow you to put consequences in place that will influence their behavior. For example, if your office manager tells you that she doesn't need to make a lot of money, the threat of not getting a raise isn't going to get her to change.
(Note: If you have an employee tell you that he doesn't care about money, recognition or career advancement, chances are he needs to find a new job.)
Once you understand where your people want to end up, then you have the foundation for designing a simple system for holding them accountable. The next step is to set clear and simple expectations and consequences if those expectations aren't met. That means that your employees can quickly deliver a straightforward answer to the following questions:
What is your job description?
How does your job performance benefit the bottom line of the company?
What do you need to do to earn a bonus, raise or promotion?
What happens if you don't perform you job duties as designed?
How does your performance affect your long-term career goals?
Finally, to close the loop in this three-step system-actually hold your employees accountable (imagine that). Although this final step is straightforward and fairly obvious, it is where most leaders fail.
You can't pick and choose when you decide to enforce the rules; you need to hold employees accountable every single time they fail to meet expectations. We've all had that employee who strolled in 15 minutes late every other day and didn't understand why we got so upset (all of a sudden) after he did it for 3 months with no repercussions.
If you get to the end of the week and you haven't had at least one slightly uncomfortable conversation with an employee about an improvement he needs to make, you either have the best staff in the world or you're not holding them accountable.
I'm not recommending that you create a tense environment where everyone is nervous that you are going to pounce on the slightest mistake. However, I do advise that you take an opportunity to correct behavior when necessary. The benefits to your company as well as the five-year goals of your employees will be significant.
McClanahan is a management consultant and leadership trainer with ReachMore Strategies. He can be reached at 576-8492 or cjm@goreachmore.com.
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