Creating a Habit of Accountability
Creating a Habit of Accountability
In a previous article, we discussed the 3 levers to drive accountability, how to create momentum and have an action plan to coach our team to achieve high performance and demonstrate the right behaviours.
Once we’ve initiated the three levers of accountability, we want to maintain that momentum, so next, we address the question: How do we integrate those roles’ expectations into the day-to-day work?
Aligning Expectations With Your Team Members
As leaders, one of our responsibilities is to help our team succeed. One way to do this is to help them have absolute clarity on how to succeed in their role.
In our work with leadership teams, we often see five consistent and recurring expectations that are required.
- Role purpose: the reason the role exists and its primary responsibility
- Measures of success: 1 or 2 KPIs to measure the role’s primary responsibility
- Priorities: 3-5 quarterly priorities to ensure focus and alignment on the most important things to deliver
- Processes and systems: 5-7 processes and systems they are responsible for
- Behaviours: cultural expectations reflected by the company’s Core Values
Recently, I discussed this with a CEO who was frustrated with their results, even after having a few meetings where the main agenda item was, in fact, accountability.
Reviewing the five expectations for their key roles, we noticed ambiguity and lack of clarity on the success expectations. Unsurprisingly, ambiguity cascaded down to the rest of the teams. So we started at the top, and each leader worked with their respective teams, going through the same process.
Below is an example of what the CEO (Manager) and the Head of Sales (Exec member) aligned and agreed on.
Creating The Habit
Once the CEO (Manager) and Rob (Head of Sales) aligned on the role’s expectations, they individually scored each expectation. We used a simple scale of 1 to 4 with:
- Not being done
- Does not meet expectations
- Meets expectations
- Exceeds expectations
They then agreed on an action plan for those unmet expectations and decided to review regularly. Below is an example of the scoring of each expectation.
Make The ”No Surprises” Rule Stick
Embedding an accountability mechanism takes time, but also, most importantly, it takes discipline. Building a regular expectations review process (e.g. quarterly review) helps both manager and team members gain consistent clarity and avoid misunderstandings about how to succeed. It will also help both parties avoid surprises regarding critical decisions such as Promotion, Exit, and Salary Review.
If you’d like to learn more about how we can help you build a great business, contact us for a chat.
