Accountability

by Don Harkey

"They just won't do what I tell them to do!"

I recently heard someone say that the role of management is to set expectations and then hold people accountable to them. This gives a poor picture as to the complete role of management.

It is true that setting an expectation is important and that people do need to be held accountable. However, this approach misses one of the best "tricks" of the management trade. Your goal as a manager should be to minimize how many expectations you set and also to minimize how much you need to "hold" people accountable. Let me explain.

Manager #1 decides to set clear expectations for their employees and makes sure to hold their people very accountable. She sits down with each employee on a quarterly basis and lists their expectations. At the same meeting, she also reviews the previous expectations with the employee and determines whether or not they were met. The employee's pay is tied directly to their performance to the expectations.

Manager #2 works continuously to make sure that the employee feels related or connected with their work. Their employees understand the common vision of the company and set their own expectations to align with that of the organization. They feel extreme pride in their successes and work quickly to repair their failures because they feel like they are a part of something important. Manager #2 is free to look to the future and provide more resources to her employees working hard on their common goal.

My point is this. You can threaten someone with their job and make them do something or you can convince the person that it is in their best interest to do something. A good example is safety training at a manufacturing facility. I can threaten employees with disciplinary action if they fail to wear their safety glasses (which I should do), but I will be much more effective if I can convince them that wearing the glasses are in their best interest (it might save their vision!).

Threats and coercions don't stick. Relatedness to a common vision builds an internal motivation within your employee and frees up management to do their real job of planning, envisioning the future, and providing resources to their employees.