As business owners, we spend lots of time strategizing, planning, budgeting, analyzing and otherwise thinking about our business. All of these are important for a business leaders in order to drive the success of an organization. And yet, how the business performs is greatly dependent on how well your team executes those strategies, follows those plans, achieves those budgets, responds to that analysis and delivers for your customers, on-time and on budget.
Accountability starts with a comparison of planned performance to actual performance, and follows with the ownership of the results. Most importantly, this follow-through, this ownership, must translate into a company’s ability to adapt so the company can aligns its plans with actual performance to consistently achieve its objectives.
For some, holding your team accountable comes naturally. For others it is a constant challenge and one that can be stressful. Finding good strategies to hold your team accountable while maintaining a positive and encouraging culture is not easy, but the payoff can be huge.
1. Define a critical process. The first step is defining a critical process and identifying what goes into the company’s ability to meet its goals for the coming year. Start with the major categories of activity in your organization: sales and marketing, design and selections, material ordering, pre-production, production and accounting. Be clear to set goals for each area of the company, and define how each will contribute to the overall goals of the company while staying on budget. Then, in each of these areas, define the specific objectives that must be met this area, or company department, can succeed.
2. Assign responsibility. The next step is to assign responsibility for each critical task. For each objective that must be achieved, there must be only one person responsible for that objective. If multiple people in the organization are responsible, then accountability is almost impossible. It is important that each person know what they are responsible for, and that the organization as a whole knows who is responsible for other objectives. This simplifies communication, performance measures and the ability to address areas of potential shortfall.
3. Define performance. There needs to be clear performance measure of each critical task. Each responsible person must know: What is the objective? What is a success? What must our profit margin be? Or closing ratio? Our percentage of on-time completion? Whatever measures are going to determine success, the measures must be clear and visible to the person responsible. One only need to imagine any sporting event without a scoreboard, without yard lines or mile markers, to realize that avid watching alone will not drive winning performance.
It is also important that those numbers are not just about outcomes (i.e. what Sales made) but also about predictive indicators such as number of leads, closing ratio and other parts of the equation that lead to the outcome being sought. Each team member must have a scorecard of key measures so they can gauge their performance as projects and work progresses.
4. Review performance. Once your critical objectives are determined, each is assigned to a responsible person and measures of performance are put in place, the last step is to be sure to review performance in light of the objectives. Don’t fall into the trap of measuring “effort.” This leads to justifying shortfalls or changing objectives. Instead, conduct an honest assessment of whether or not the objective has been achieved. When a kicker misses a field goal, a batter strikes out or a skater falls, a good coach does not pretend that those things didn’t happen. They circle back to training, communication, motivation and processes to make it more likely that success will be achieved the next time.
At the end of the day, the ambitious goals that come from strategic planning and budgeting can only be achieved if the individual tasks that drive each goal are also achieved. It is the challenge of every leader to look not only at the whole, but also at the role each person must play and at the level of performance each person must achieve for the organization to be a success.
Keep in mind, leaders that create a culture of accountability and consistent success are the ones doing the very most for the company, its customers and the people in the organization being led.
[This article originally appeared in Remodeling].
