A leaders primary responsibility is to get results.

Often they rely on others to fulfill portions of the overall plan in order to get the results they need. But how do you improve your chances of success when you have to rely on others? In my last piece I spoke about creating a culture of accountability. In this piece I want to talk about improving your success in holding others accountable.

Accountability is often seen as holding others accountable. You ask someone to do something, they agree to do it, but when you get the results they are not what you expected. Our first response is to be upset with the person who was responsible for the task, holding them accountable for the non-performance. They let you down. But how often do we ask ourselves, what role did we play in the level of non-performance? What could we have done differently to improve our chances for success?

In their book How Did That Happen, Roger Connors and Tom Smith talk about the two sides to accountability. One side deals with how to be accountable and the other side talks about how to hold others accountable. The outer ring outlines the steps to establishing expectations, and the inner ring deals with solving unmet expectations. Establishing expectations is centered around being clear about what you want, making sure the other person understands what you want and then following up before the deadline to make sure you get what you want. Solving unmet expectations is a different look at things, this ring can help improve your chances for success.

How often have you asked someone to do something and they fail to deliver the results you wanted? You set clear expectations, told them when you needed it, but come the due date, it’s not what you expected or worse yet not there. When holding the other person accountable was there a tone of disappointment or worse punishment in your voice? What if maybe the person didn’t fully understand why they were asked to do it or not capable of completing the task. The inner ring looks at four areas:

• Were they able to do it? In other words did they have the skillset or training to complete the task.
• Were they willing to do it? Did they understand the importance of the task or why they were chosen to do it? Did they understand the why behind them being involved.
• Is there a culture of accountability on your team? If there is no culture of accountability, why would you expect someone to fulfill their obligation? Or worse if they get yelled at for not giving you the results you want why would they volunteer to do the job?
• Lastly are they accountable people? Do they look to blame others for the results they get or do they look to themselves to see what they could have done differently to get the results.

If you look at the two rings, outer and inner only one of the eight steps in achieving successful results is laid upon the person being asked to do something. The other seven steps rely on the person asking for the commitment to deliver.

That’s the leader in most cases. But rarely do I hear it was my fault why you didn’t perform. What I hear most often is Billy is not an accountable person because they fail to get me the things I need on time or correctly. You need to fire Billy.

So the way to improve your chances of success is to make sure you have established clear expectations, make sure you are asking the right person to do the job and then make sure they know why it is important they do it. And make sure you work on a positive culture of accountability so you get people who want to succeed and hold themselves accountable. I bet you would get better results using this model than the one most people use.

Interested in improving accountability to get better results? Then you may be onto something here!

Allyn Vaughn