Positive Accountability – Effective Delegation Part IV

By Action Coach Dave Beam

When you hear the word “accountability”, what comes to mind?  Does it produce a positive, upbeat, exciting feeling, or a negative, uncomfortable, unpleasant feeling?

When I first start coaching with a person, they almost always have negative emotions and ideas associated with accountability.  They carry bad memories of annual evaluations with supervisors or bosses that were disconnected or on a power trip.  They have visions of tense meetings ending in probation and employee discipline.  They certainly don’t seek out  “constructive criticism” and “performance feedback evaluation” with delight.

I would like to challenge you to take another view.  Think about top performing athletes.  How do you think they view accountability, feedback, and constructive criticism?  Most of them welcome and even pay high dollars to get it.  They realize to be the best at what they do, they need to have a clear picture of where they are, how they are doing, and what needs to change and improve.

Positive accountability is a key to effective delegation.  To make it positive, positioning and purpose is the key.  Ken Blanchard in his classic “One Minute Manager” shares that feedback is the breakfast of champions.  People love to play and win games, and to know that they are a winner, they need to have a score.  Accountability is all about providing your team with regular measurable feedback on their performance.  Most jobs have three to five critical responsibilities that can be measured.  If the team member consistently fulfills those key duties, then they are effective and doing well.  As their leader, it is your responsibility to create a measurable system of feedback based on those key responsibilities.  I use the term “Key Performance Indicators” (KPIs).  Once you have established KPIs for each team position, you can provide regular consistent feedback and measure improvement.  This creates an environment where you can catch each member doing it right, recognize and celebrate improvement, and respond to the specific areas that need attention and help.  Forget the annual evaluation!  This approach to evaluation is frequent and on-going.

Employees love to know that they are doing a good job.  They also appreciate recognition and communication so they can be the best they can be.  Once you identify the most important desired performance and outcome for each team position, you are ready to communicate those outcomes and create some amazing agreements with each team member.  If you do this right, it is a positive and rewarding process that employees appreciate and even anticipate with open arms.

If you need some help creating a positive system of accountability in your business, give us a call and request a complimentary coaching session.  I would be glad to help you get started.