Accountability

I was recently asked to deliver a workshop on Accountability for a group of CEOs, and while it is a regular question from my clients, I was interested to discover that according to the 2019 CEO Benchmarking Report, it is perceived by leaders as their biggest weakness.

How even when we drill down into those results we also see that #2 is “Getting rid of under-performers”, #5 is “Being analytical about the business” and #8 is “Motivating my employees.” They all fall under the same category as Accountability to my mind.

I think that part of the challenge is that we see accountability as one issue as we think about the conversation about performance (or lack of it) with a team member.

Many of us are bothered about the confrontation, of telling people that they aren’t good enough, or working hard enough, of perhaps getting it wrong or having an argument about the issue.

If that resonates with you, I believe that you have it all wrong from the start. I talk about Pragmatic Leadership with my clients. Along with Authentic Leadership it is an essential aspect of leading a team successfully. Pragmatic Leaders focus on PTA. That’s stands for Planning, Targets and Accountability.

We make performance conversations hard for ourselves because we haven’t set clear performance expectations to begin with. Everyone in your business has a role to play, what does success in that role look like and what are the actions that will produce that success. The Position Description doesn’t do this. We need to describe Key Results Areas with TARGETS, for people to truly understand what they need to do to be successful. When a target is missed, we have a conversation about the gap, understand what caused it and work with the tam member to close the gap and fix the problem. That is the basis of accountability.

1. Set a target
2. Measure performance
3. Close the gap of underperformance
4. Praise over-achievement
5. Rinse and repeat

It is easy to believe that “they should just know”. If they did, there wouldn’t be a problem. Great leaders are mentors and coaches, they understand the issues, they lean in and ask questions and help their people to be successful. Not everyone is a self-starter, sometimes we need to be shown the way.

To partner with Pragmatico Pty Ltd to increase your effectiveness in both business and your personal life contact Mark at 0416 111 454 or via email at mark@pragmatico.com.au