Six Tips for Making Accountability Stick

Fred Johnson, President/CEO, CUESby: Fred Johnson, President/CEO, CUES

You can’t lead an organization of any significant size without getting pretty good at delegating tasks. And delegating successfully includes doing something difficult: holding people accountable for their work. No one likes getting feedback about what they’ve done less than perfectly. We’d much rather talk about things that we’ve done well.

So the first step to making accountability stick is to make it as palatable as possible. Make sure you give balanced feedback that gives the good before and after the bad.

In my days in the military, this was calling giving someone “counseling.” It was meant to be a constructive process that helped the other person along. But feedback or counseling needs to be delivered by a manager with people skills, who can say things in ways that the employee can hear—that don’t feel abrasive.

The wisdom of the adage, “praise in public, critique in private,” also applies here. And it goes without saying that while shouting may provide catharsis to the manager’s who’s doing it, can make it very hard for an employee to hear the meaning of the manager’s words.

Creating accountability in your organization is also aided by making sure that your managers actually want to help develop other employees. Putting someone in a management role who prefers to produce an excellent product or perfect a process might be asking for trouble.

Second, accountability sticks better if you use good metrics for the work your team is doing. At CUES we measure performance with a whole host of numbers, such as our financial outcomes, numbers of attendees at conferences, and ratings that event participants give our speakers, hotels and staff.

We also pay attention to the informal feedback that members give us. What letters are they writing to us? What are they telling industry news media about CUES? It’s anecdotal to be sure, but it’s telling.

Third, make careful choices about to whom you delegate which projects. You shouldn’t delegate something until you know the person is capable of doing it. It will take more than reading a new hire’s resume and sometimes more than working with a new hire for a month or two to make this determination.

As a fourth consideration, remember that even though you can delegate authority, you can’t delegate responsibility. In my 23 years at CUES, I have delegated authority to others to do things, but I still share the responsibility for the results. That’s what boards face, too—a sort of ultimate responsibility since their personal finances may be affected if the performance of the credit union is poor.

Fifth, don’t forget that motivation comes from within. I can’t motivate an employee from outside, but I can provide an environment that will support their own drive to succeed. For example, I encourage my direct reports to meet on their own. When I meet with them, I can be the arbiter if there’s something they don’t agree on. But I also think it helps keep them excited about their jobs that they can come up with their own ideas and run with them.

Finally, consider how many people a manager can effectively hold accountable and make sure your organization has appropriate groupings of leaders and staffers. In the military, we used to talk about the “span of control”—the idea of how many people can report to one supervisor. The army’s answer was four or five at the bottom levels of the organization.

Basically, in an infantry unit, a fire team of four or five reports to a unit leader; two or three unit leaders report to a squad leader, and so on. Every organization is distributed differently, but the idea that each key area needs a head is the same. And, more importantly, each employee must know with certainty for whom they work.

Delegation is essential for any organization to grow. Top leaders can’t do everything in a growing company—there just aren’t enough hours in the day. Plus, by delegating, you give your reports a chance to learn something new. So give it a go. Try what I’ve suggested, check in with other experts (here’s a good article about how to delegate effectively), and watch as your members reap the rewards.

Fred Johnson is president/CEO of CUES, a Madison, Wisconsin-based, independent, not-for-profit, international membership association for credit union executives. CUES’ mission is to educate and develop credit union CEOs, directors and future leaders. www.cues.org

Fred Johnson

Fred Johnson

Fred Johnson is president/CEO of CUES, a Madison, Wisconsin-based, independent, not-for-profit, international membership association for credit union executives. CUES’ mission is to educate and develop credit union CEOs, directors ... Web: www.cues.org Details