Establishing gracious accountability

- When you set a goal and commit to someone else that you'll complete it, you've got a 65% chance of accomplishing it. If you set accountability appointments with that person, you'll increase your chance of success by up to 95%. In order to help your employees achieve their goals, you'll need to act as their accountability partner. Let's walk through the most effective way to hold employees accountable while empowering them to moved forward. First, set employees up for success by identifying expectations through goals and milestones, and let them know that they need to provide regular updates. This helps employees know what to aim for. It also helps them keep themselves accountable to meet those goals. In my own career, one of my leaders would first describe a project, and then he would list the deliverables. I would repeat them back for clarity and to confirm the due dates. Then we would reconnect seven days later to review the outcomes. I knew what I needed to do each day, and at the end of the week I could assess for myself whether I had met my goals. Here's what I learned from that. When employees deliver, celebrate and give them feedback on what they did right. But if they don't deliver, it's time to address what went wrong. Now, it's important to give feedback the right way. When addressing poor performance, always separate the issue from the person. Don't ever assume you know everything going in. Start with the facts, not your conclusions, and ask the person for their point of view. And then come to an agreement on what's not working. For example, in one of my early reviews, my leader wanted me to improve my peer relationships. He didn't draw a conclusion like, "You're not getting along with your peers." He said, "I believe you have an opportunity "to improve key relationships with your peers." Notice that it's an assessment of what was going wrong and not me as a person. Good leaders also equip employees to take ownership of their performance. You want to focus on helping the person create clear steps to improve their performance so together you can measure the results. The leader I mentioned earlier helped me see that I could invest time in building rapport with my coworkers. It was easy to see that investment pay off when I started to see eye to eye more often with my peers. So, be more intentional in scheduling one on one meetings with team members. This pulse check will let you know where projects stand and will allow employees to take ownership. Remember, the goal here is to hold your employees accountable so that they can achieve greatness. A job is what they're paid to do. Releasing their brilliance is what they're made to do.