How to hold someone accountable as a leader
Holding other people accountable is a key piece of being a manager or leader in an organization. It can be difficult to hold others accountable because each person has different motivations and communication styles that will impact their accountability needs. In this blog post, we'll cover several angles of consideration:
What does it mean to hold someone accountable?
What happens when you lack accountability?
How to hold people accountable?
What to do if they aren't meeting your expectations?
How to maintain accountability over time?
What does it mean to hold someone accountable?
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Being accountable for something means you are responsible for it. As a manager, this typically means that you are responsible for your team's projects and goals reaching the finish line to the best of their ability.
It's important to note that (depending on your team and projects) you may not need to actually be part of executing the tasks of the project, however, you are responsible for the tasks being completed as a whole. So holding team members accountable means you are responsible for helping them do their best whether that's training them to know how to complete the work required, providing feedback along the way, getting roadblocks out of their way, creating a collaborative environment, and more.
What happens when you lack accountability?
Without accountability, you and your team will likely end up working more and more and becoming more frustrated with yourselves and each other. This happens because:
Deadlines will get missed resulting in delaying the project and causing misconnects across team members involved.
Tasks may be put off until the last minute, resulting in less time for reviewing earlier drafts and more revisions needed at the last minute.
As a manager, if you aren't able to keep up on all of the deadlines across your team members, there may be a disconnect in workload management causing some employees to be overworked (and burnt out) and others underutilized (and resentful).
How to hold people accountable
The most important part of accountability is making sure you and the person you're holding accountable are on the same page from the beginning. This will reduce the difficult conversations you need to have later and will help increase the likelihood of completion.
1.Set specific and clear expectations
This is easier said than done. Here is a checklist for you to help you look at it from several angles:
What are you holding them accountable to? Describe the task or end goal. Make it SMART: specific, measurable, realistic, and time-bound.
What does success look like? What kind of end format or deliverable are you looking for?
How often and when will we check in on this?
What other support may they need along the way?
How can they ask for help otherwise?
How will we adjust as needed along the way?
Why is this task/project important in the larger view of the team or organization?
For longer term project, put the terms in writing: send in an email or use a shared file with details of what they're responsible for, when it is due, and any other guidelines they need
2.Instead of micromanaging them, empower them
Micromanaging is when you (the manager) are too involved in the day-to-day tasks of your employees. You want to empower them to be able to run with their own ideas and take initiative, to the degree that it makes sense for their position and tenure.
You can do this by asking questions to help them think through how they'd approach it instead of just giving them your answers or your opinions.
We all think, work, communicate, and are motivated in different ways. You'll need to feel this out for each of your team members, and make note of what's working and what doesn't work for each of them in order to improve both of your efforts in the future.
3.Know that there will be a learning curve on both sides
When you're a new leader, you may have tunnel vision of how you want things completed and to the level of excellence. We can get to the same destination a lot of different ways, it doesn't mean our way is always 'right' or that there even is a right or wrong way to get there. Sometimes, you have to let your employees stumble along the way so that they can adjust and learn first-hand.
Example of holding someone accountable with clear expectations:
Assigning an employee on your team an important new project during your weekly one-on-one:
Next on our agenda for today is a new project that I would like you to take the lead on: our Q3 sales report. We would like to see the sales broken down by month and customer for July, August, and September in a brief PowerPoint presentation, no more than 5 pages. Is it realistic to have this done by two weeks from today?
We've never broken down our sales like this so this report will be really helpful for myself and the leadership team for planning for next year. We can check in during next week's one-on-one to see how it's coming along and go through any questions you have to review.
Do you have all of the data you'll need? What else do you think you'll need to get started on it? Any other questions for me?
What to do if they aren't meeting your expectations?
Maybe they aren't going to hit the timeline, something isn't going according to plan, or they need some constructive feedback. Instead of coming in pointing fingers, blaming, or highlighting what isn't working, first start by acknowledging what IS working.
Then highlight the gap from where they are today to where the expectation is at the end of the goal or project. Make it a non-judgmental conversation that is based in curiosity of how can we come up with a new plan or idea together to make the change needed to get to the end result.
Start with questions about what they think would work and offer suggestions along the way as needed.
Keep the conversation based on facts, not judgements or assumptions.
Come to the conversation prepared with clear talking points:
Facts of what has happened so far (what would a neutral third party say has happened)
Where we are at today in the project and where we need to be
Starter questions to get their ideas for next steps
Example of holding someone accountable when they aren't meeting your expectations:
Checking in with your employee's Q3 sales report halfway through their deadline to find out that they haven't started it yet.
Let's check in on the Q3 sales report. We spoke last week about this project and checking in during this meeting. Where are you at?
Looks like you've pulled the data from our sales system. That's great to know you have the information you need. We're halfway through the deadline of getting it completed by next Thursday and you haven't started the Powerpoint slides yet. What are your next steps? Is the deadline still realistic? What support do you need to get it completed in time?
How to maintain accountability over time?
If this person is has a deadline of more than a few weeks, it's best to set up checkpoints along the way. This will help both of you to stay on the same page, make adjustments to the plan as needed, and stay motivated over the long term.
To set up checkpoints, first discuss what timing cadence makes the most sense (weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, etc.). Then, you'll want to discuss what a checkpoint needs to look like. Is it a separate meeting? Is it part of your usual one-on-one meetings? Is it an email check in?
Lastly, you'll need to hold yourself accountable to these checkpoints. In other words, how will you remember these checkpoints? How will you be prepared for those conversations? Consider adding reminders to your calendar, phone, or planner to keep them top of mind.
Ready to learn more leadership skills and receive accountability for your own growth? Schedule a free discovery call to meet Brittany and see if you’re a good fit for a coaching partnership. Coaching clients are taken on a first-come, first-served basis, pending availability.
Brittany Canaski is a highly-rated Leadership Coach, Trainer, and Founder of Hello Velocity where she builds confident leaders and high-performing teams. When she's not building her business, you can find her planning her next travel adventure with her husband, watching Formula 1 racing, or volunteering in her local community of Charlotte, NC.
