HowtoHoldPeopleAccountable.mp3 - powered by Happy Scribe

You're listening to the MentalNotes podcast. In this episode, MentalNotes founder Scott Dow explains how to hold people accountable.

If you only hold people accountable for their performance, you're missing a great leadership opportunity. You're missing a coaching opportunity. In fact, I think you're doing your people a disservice. Let me explain why. You can hold people accountable for three things: their performance, their behaviors, or their decisions.

Now, many of you are managing remote workers, and these remote workers are largely unsupervised. You can't walk by their cubicle, you can't observe what they're doing, and it's hard to give real time feedback. Now, you can interact via Teams or Slack, and you can have quick touch bases over the phone. But the remote worker is largely left to their own devices.

You can assess performance, but that's after the fact, right? And it's hard to observe behaviors that are happening remotely. The way someone performs over time and the way they behave in the moment is a result of the choices they're making, the decisions they make day in and day out. That's why it's important to hold people accountable for their decisions.

Remember, you're a leader. You're not a scorekeeper. Anyone can look at a result and judge it as good or bad. Bad behavior is easy to spot too. Listen, if someone does something really stupid, they know it as well as anyone. But an effective leader is going to influence the decisions that trigger the behaviors that enable good performance. That's leadership.

So how do you hold people accountable for their decisions? Well, you start by empowering people to make good decisions, especially remote workers. But you have to explain clearly what that means.

A decision is based on a choice. If you don't have a choice, there's no decision to be made. So the lives we live are a reflection of the choices we make. And life comes down to two choices. We have the choice between the things we want to do, but no, we shouldn't. We have the choice between things we don't want to do, but no, we should. Business is the same way, and you need to explain this to your people, especially professionals that work remotely.

Here's how it works in real life. I want to lose 10 pounds. I wish I only wanted to lose two pounds, but we'll call it 10 pounds. Each day, I have choices. I really want to order dessert, but I know I shouldn't. I don't really want to go to the gym, but I know I should.

Now, I can wait and hold myself accountable for my weight loss goal, but what's the point? If I'm choosing carrot cake over cardio, and I never hold myself accountable, and I've lost the opportunity to influence my behaviors and my performance. So remember, managing performance, especially of remote professionals, comes down to giving feedback, and holding people accountable for their decisions, not their performance.

Here's how you practice this. When you talk to people, ask open-ended questions about their day, and listen intently to the choices they're making. Focus on their priorities, what they're choosing to focus on. Are they avoiding things they should be doing, or maybe doing things they shouldn't be doing? This is a great coaching opportunity.

Remind people that you're empowering them to make good choices, good decisions. When you do this, you're holding them accountable. You're calling them into account for their decisions. You don't have to beat people up. That's not the point. The point is to make people mindful of their decisions.

Listen, there are days I choose cheesecake over cardio, and your employees will too. But if they know they're accountable for their decisions, then they'll start making better decisions. And that's going to show up in their longer term performance.