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How to Increase Accountability in My Team · Enhance.training

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: How to increase accountability in my team is a question that I've been asked many times by clients, team members and colleagues.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: In this podcast I explain why many managers find holding team members to account difficult and go through six steps to take to make increasing accountability in your team much easier.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: And at the end of this podcast, I give you my recommendations for a great book to read on building accountability by a legendary business leader.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: My name is Jess Coles and I spent 25 years working in corporates and household names through to SMEs at all management levels.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: I've been involved in turning around businesses and team performance multiple times, have achieved dramatic performance improvements, and have personally learnt an awful lot about holding people to account.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: If you're new to this podcast, enhanced.training provides online business courses to help professionals, managers and business owners improve their performance.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: And if you like this podcast, please share it with friends and colleagues and visit us at enhanced.training.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: Holding people to account is a critical part of getting things done through your team.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: So why are so many managers so poor at it?
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: According to a Harvard Business Review article, 46% of managers are poor at holding people accountable, and this is consistent across all levels and all cultures.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: A key reason for this reluctance to hold people to account is that those managers that do hold people to account often lose some social support within the group or team.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: There is a personal cost to holding team members to account, and many are reluctant to pay this price.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: With this insight, it is easy to see why so many people in positions of authority are soft on accountability.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: From personal experience, I believe that you can hold people to account and still maintain the goodwill and respect of your team and remain liked as a manager.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: As you can imagine, how you hold people to account and yourself to account is critical to achieve this.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: So let's talk about what holding team members to account means in terms of team performance and team morale.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: So first I'm going to talk about why increasing accountability is so important to improving team performance.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: Accountability is a critical part of getting things done.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: If the team doesn't deliver much, the poor team performance will impact on the wider business.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: If this poor performance is replicated across the business, it's unlikely the business will survive for long in the modern day competitive business environment.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: Accountability is about delivering on a commitment.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: It's a responsibility to an outcome, not just a set of tasks.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: It's taking initiative with thoughtful strategic follow-through.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: This is a great quote by Peter Gregman.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: I think that creating high performance teams and delivering good results is nearly impossible to do if there is no accountability at an individual level and at a team level.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: Now let's quickly talk about the impact of poor accountability on team morale.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: Poor accountability impacts team morale.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: Let me explain why through an example.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: Imagine you have a few good performers on your team and one who doesn't perform.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: If the one who doesn't perform does not face any consequences for that poor performance, then as a manager you're saying through your lack of actions that poor performance is okay.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: If you're one of the good performers, or another team member in fact, how would you feel?
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: Would you be incentivized to work hard and do a good job if your colleague was getting away with doing a poor job?
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: Would you feel fairly treated or even consistently treated?
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: In this situation, it is likely that you'd feel less motivated and produce less.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: I certainly did when I was in this situation and I've seen the impact of poor accountability on teams in many, many businesses.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: Poor accountability is compounded if good performance is not rewarded.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: Without accountability and little upside or downside, there is little incentive for team members to do a good job.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: The best people leave to work at companies where their efforts and their performance do make a difference and are appreciated.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: And this drain, if you like, of people further impacts the team performance because the good people leave.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: Create a level playing field for all and create incentives to do a good job by holding everyone in the team accountable.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: Accountability gives everyone and particularly the good performers an opportunity to shine.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: The first step to take to help encourage accountability in the team is to set expectations, milestones and goals.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: This is step one.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: Increasing the accountability of your team must start with you setting clear expectations.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: If team members are not sure of what is expected of them, how will they and you know when those expectations have been met?
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: If you don't set expectations, you've only your opinion against their opinion as to whether they have done a good job or a poor job.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: If you set clear expectations, milestones and goals, then it is very clear if the team member has met the milestones or the goals agreed or not.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: One way of setting milestones and goals is if for you to pick a target and impose this on the team member or the team itself.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: This method is quicker and easier for you.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: Your team member may never really own these goals and they are your goals imposed upon them, which will impact their sense of accountability.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: Another way of setting milestones and goals is to discuss and agree the goals with the team members.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: By setting the goals together, they become joint goals and thus the team member and the wider team is much more likely to own them.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: This improves their accountability and motivation to achieve the goals set.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: Put the expectations, milestones and goals in writing so both parties have a reference document or email to refer to.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: This stops any lost in translational issues or future disagreements as to what exactly the expectations and goals were.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to be able to hold team members accountable, you must first set expectations and agree milestones and goals.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: So this takes us on to step two, which is hold yourself accountable.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: As a leader of a team or business, you set the rules.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: How you conduct yourself and what you say sets the tone, culture and behaviours of the team.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: What you allow and what you don't allow are some of the strongest messages that you can send to your team intentionally or not.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: Therefore, you need to consistently follow your own rules if you want everyone else to follow your rules too.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: Don't say one thing and then do another.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: You know a really simple example of this is if you were always five minutes late for meetings, I bet you your team members will often be five minutes late too, to meetings, no matter how many times you tell them to be on time.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: The point is actions speak a lot louder than words, so make sure you are prepared to be accountable yourself, to work hard to hit your own targets and goals, and behave consistently with the rules that you ask others to follow.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: If you do this, everyone else is much much more likely to follow the rules too.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: So it leads us on to step three.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: Decide how you're going to measure performance or progress.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: A great quote is you can't manage what you can't measure.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: This is a really well-known quote and often used, and this is from Peter Drucker.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: To create accountability, you need to measure progress.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: Measurement is an essential step to consistently undertake to know where you are and if the goal has been reached.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: You'll know exactly when you've reached that thousand email mark.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: If you don't measure progress, you can only guess.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: So if you want to know where you are, you must measure progress towards the set goal.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: Deciding what to measure is really important.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: What to track may be obvious, like the previous example, or you may have many options of what to track if for instance you are managing I don't know a large IT implementation project.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: What you choose to measure will create the focus for the person doing the task or project.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: Get this wrong and achieving your goal might be a lot harder, or you might actually not even get to the goal.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: A simple example could be having a goal of achieving a thousand pounds of profit in the first year of a new service that you're offering.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: If you measure and target revenue, you may end up with a lot of low quality contracts, thus hitting your revenue target but missing your profit target by a mile.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, I've seen loss-making situations with this dynamic.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: So choose what you're going to measure carefully and try to spot and think through any unintended consequences of what you choose to measure.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: This takes us to step four, creating visibility.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: The next step to take after you've chosen what to measure is to make public the goals and how progress is tracking towards those goals.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: If you have each team member engaged in one of several projects, then circulate the progress of each project amongst the team.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: Have a whiteboard and keep track of the progress on the board, or have a weekly team meeting and review progress and celebrate the successes.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: Think about different ways of creating visibility.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: And by creating visibility, you are engaging peer pressure.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: No one likes to fail or be last.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: Those towards the bottom are more likely to try harder to catch up, and those at the towards the top are more likely to try harder to stay ahead.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: The performance improvement that can be created by visibility and peer pressure has always amazed me.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: Try it.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: And then to gamify getting to the goals even further, add in prizes for each milestone achieved and getting to the final goal, of course.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: And don't think necessarily about money, get the team members to think of fun activities to do for each milestone and goal.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: I've found that this works a lot better.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: Whatever you do, create visibility of progress and make this public.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: Step five is about giving useful, honest and specific feedback regularly.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: Give as much useful, honest and specific feedback as you can to your team.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: So why is feedback so important?
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: Well, if you don't know what you're doing well and what needs improving, how are you going to improve?
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: Honest feedback helps team members to improve and shows you care about improving their skills and performance.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: So take the time to give feedback.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: Praise when you see great work being done or great behaviour.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: Ask team members to take others through how they achieve the great results.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: Help and coach those that are struggling.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: Don't procrastinate in giving feedback.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: The value of feedback diminishes with time, so provide feedback in a timely manner.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: And be specific when giving feedback.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: This really helps the other person understand exactly what is good and what is not.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: The more specific your feedback, the more helpful.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: And being specific shows the other person that you are taking note of what they're doing and thinking about it before giving feedback, i.e.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: you care enough to make the effort.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: So give feedback regularly and coach and mentor any team member that would benefit from your help.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: And if you want to know more about giving feedback, then look out for our podcast on giving feedback to team members.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: Step six, following up regularly is a must to increase accountability on your team.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: Following up is a critical tool to drive accountability, and the managers that struggle to deliver through their teams nearly always don't follow up enough.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: Let me walk you through a typical example of following up.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: So on day one, I ask one of my team to do an analysis of a group of customers to find out which buys the most, which makes us the most profit, which needs the most support and so on.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: We agree a deadline of 10 days to complete this analysis, and I send a quick email to outline what has been agreed following the conversation.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: On day two, I pop around to their desk and ask how the analysis is going and if I can do anything to help.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: This allows me to help if needed, but also to check that they have started and understand what is needed.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: On day four, I pick up the phone and ask about progress.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: I want to know if they're progressing all the elements that I've asked for, and what problems they might have and how I can help resolve those problems with them.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: If progress is behind, I pick up the phone on day six and check what I can do to help.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: If progress has been good, I probably won't call at this point.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: On day eight, I call again to check that everything is going well and if the deadline will be hit.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_00: And then on day 10 or earlier, I get what I've asked for and the level of detail and quality I require.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: By showing interest and offering to help where needed, I'm signalling through my actions that I care about this project.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: I'm saying it is important to me and I need it delivered on time.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: By following up, you make the project important to the other person too.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, how you follow up is super important.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: You don't want to micromanage the person or be demanding an update every five minutes.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: But you do want to offer help with any issues, answer any questions they have, or clarify what you want and what is needed.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: If you don't follow up, and say in the previous example, you set out the project on day one and then called on day ten to get your analysis, your actions are saying to the other person that the project is not really that important to you.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: You may get exactly what you wanted, or you may get something else, or you may get nothing.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: The point is that you don't know until day 10, and at that point it's too late to change what you're getting.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: Follow up regularly if you want to get what you want when you want it.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: By following up, you are also giving the other person the opportunity to get help from you and manage your expectations.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: This helps both parties.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: The very good team members will proactively manage you.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: They'll provide you with regular updates so you actually won't need to follow up at all.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: Whatever you do, make sure you follow up regularly with your team members to help drive accountability.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: As promised at the beginning of the podcast, I was going to mention one of my favourite books on creating accountability, and this is Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: And it's written by Larry Bossody and Ram Charan.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: This is an excellent book and well worth a read for anyone in a management position.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: And a bit of background, Larry is credited with turning around Allied Signal and Honeywell after a 34-year career at General Electric, and he's got some fantastic insights.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: In summary, creating accountability in Teams does take time and effort to achieve, yet it is essential if you want to have a team that performs and delivers.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: Driving accountability into your team requires, firstly, to hold yourself accountable, so it's really really important.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: Second, you have to set expectations, milestones, and goals for the team members and the team.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: Thirdly, you need to measure progress towards your defined goal and make sure you create visibility so that all can see the progress of each person and the team itself.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: And then giving feedback and definitely following up regularly will significantly increase the success of your team and thus your performance as a manager and leader.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: You can achieve some amazing results with a motivated and accountable team.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: Everything you do to increase accountability in your team will be well worth the effort you put in.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: Your sense of satisfaction and your career will absolutely thank you for it.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: Enjoy managing and leading your team.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: And do visit us at enhanced.training and take a look at the courses and resources to help you manage your team more effectively.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_00: And if you like this podcast, please share it with friends and colleagues.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks very much for listening, and I look forward to speaking to you again soon.