LEADERSHIP SALES
Holding Your Team Accountable
BY DR . GEOFF SMART
Leaders often fail to hold their team accountable . During research for our book Powerscore , we found that only 8 % of leaders are good at holding people accountable . One of the main reasons that leaders fail in this area is because when it ’ s done wrong , it makes things more difficult for everyone .
Here ’ s an example : I was giving a keynote speech at a Fortune conference a few years back and asked the audience , “ How many of you have goals for your teams that are written down ?” Only 10 % raised their hands . Failure to write down goals opens up the door for confusion .
IT BECOMES NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE TO HOLD SOMEONE ACCOUNTABLE FOR DELIVERING A RESULT WHEN YOU HAVE FAILED TO ARTICULATE WHAT YOU ’ RE LOOKING FOR .
In order to hold your team accountable , you need to be specific with goals and use numbers that others provide to measure performance . When I was still a young CEO with ghSMART , I struggled to hold a consultant accountable . She was brilliant and had great technical skills but failed to call clients proactively and didn ’ t follow up with them . Many clients did not ask for her to come back as their trusted advisor .
I called her into my office and told her that she needed to work on her client relationships . She disagreed and stated that her clients loved her work . I said , “ Well , one client told me that although he values your work , he feels you treat him like ‘ processed cheese ’ and that you rush to finish projects with him , then you move on to your next client project .” She said that her work spoke for itself , and the meeting abruptly ended .
This was a huge failure on my part as I failed to set specific , mutually agreed on goals and used vague wording . I talked about this with a mentor , and he said , “ Make sure you have clear goals , in writing so your consultants know what ‘ great ’ looks like . Then , have somebody other than you collect data on their performance . Then you can sit down as a coach to review their results versus their goals .”
It was great advice that I immediately put into practice . When you properly hold people accountable , high performers will know they are performing , and they will keep doing what they are doing . And lower performers will know they are not performing well , long before anybody has to sit them down to have a conversation .
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