Accountability is one of the major pillars
of effective business execution. It’s not about your people working
hard or being busy. It’s about everyone doing the right things that
will move their area of the business forward - in line with the
company’s strategic priorities.
Strategic Priorities.
People are more engaged and productive when they clearly understand the specific strategic priorities
they are personally accountable to execute each quarter - and when they
can clearly track their execution progress. Execution software tools
are ideal for this purpose.
Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s).
A major key to effective business execution is to identify your KPI's -
and to measure on a weekly basis the small handful of "predictive
measures" that will ultimately be reflected in positive outcomes on your
monthly financial statements. Effective companies use dashboards to
graphically and publicly display their KPI numbers every week. This
forces everyone in the team to confront reality, and visually drives
accountability for results.
Seats on the bus.
If your business could be described as being like a bus - what are the
key seats on your bus - i.e. what are the key functional roles on your
team? Two common problems are often identified:
Do you have someone who is sitting in too many seats – i.e. performing too many roles and not able to do justice to them all?
Do you have roles where more than one person is trying to squeeze
themselves into the same seat? Many people can contribute, but only 1
person can be accountable for overall performance in each role – if you
want to drive accountability.
Performance standards.
Do you know what’s expected of you in your role? Is it measurable?
Every role should have one objective number that measures performance.
This number should be tracked and made visible every week – or at least
every month. Everyone should know how they are performing, and whether
or not they are doing a good job.
Accountability is meaningless without consequences.
Once we know whose butt sits in which seat, what strategic priorities we
need them to execute, how we are going to track progress, and what
number we will use to measure performance in that role every week - then
it’s your job as the manager to hold people accountable.
When your people do achieve the required standard – they should be
praised and appropriately recognized. Managers tend not to praise and
recognize their people enough.
Conversely, if someone is not
achieving the required standard – you as the manager need to do
something about it. Your people already know who the poor performers on
the team are – they are just waiting to see if you are going to do
anything about it. Are you really serious about accountability for
performance or not?
The discipline of holding people accountable for meeting performance
standards every week drives effective strategic execution – and very
quickly weeds out the poor performers on your team. Performance
appraisals are not an annual thing. There should be no surprises. Your
people should know every week whether they are performing or not.
Sometimes you do need to make an example and let someone go. You need
to do what’s right for the business. You owe it to your team not to
tolerate poor performance.
Are your people being held accountable for meeting the performance standards required in their role?
Stephen Lynch
Chief Operating Officer - Global Operations
RESULTS.com
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