How to Effectively Hold People Accountable

At Profitable Growth Partners, one of our most popular series of workshops is the Boot Camp for Managers program. The program teaches the core skills that everyone who supervises, or plans to supervise, people should know. Session #2 of Boot Camp is on the topic of "Creating High Performance Teams." A question that often comes up during the session, is "how do I hold other members of the team accountable to their commitments?"

Let’s frame this within the context of a team. What can you do to hold a team member accountable to commitments made to the team?

· Put commitments/assignments in writing. When someone makes a commitment to get something done or is asked to complete an assignment for the team, put it in writing! Every team meeting ought to be followed up with a summary of the team’s discussion, decisions, commitments, next steps. If there are assigned tasks, detail each members’ commitment, clearly and concisely in your summary. (If it’s an individual commitment made to you, not the team, still put it in writing).

· Make it relevant. When an individual commits to a task, make sure it’s clear why that particular task is important and how it’s relevant to the overall objectives/goals.

· Agree on deadlines. Make sure you ask for and get dates by which the agreed upon tasks will be completed. If a critical date must be mandated (rather than negotiated), look the individual in the eye and ask if he can commit to that date. Then be sure to include those dates in your written summary back to the team (or the individual).

· Conduct a “pre-deadline” check. A week or so before the due date for the committed task, check in with the team member: how are they coming on the work they committed to? Do they need help? Will they make the deadline? If they are having challenges and the original completion date is critical, find out what the problem is: do they need to offload other, less critical work? Is the task more complex and difficult than expected, requiring more time and resources? Etc.

· Send out a pre-meeting agenda. Remind team members of the next team meeting, outline the discussion agenda. If tasks are due for completion by this meeting, make it clear that you’ll expect a report out to the team.

· Ask team members to update on their progress by the due date. They can either do this verbally at a team meeting or via email to team members. Hold them accountable to doing so by the agreed upon completion date. If the report is lengthy or complex, tell the individual that their action report is the agenda for the next team meeting! This effectively puts the pressure on.

· Ask for explanation and commitment to new completion date if original date is not met. Once again, when the due date is not met, find out if the individual needs help in some way.

· Show appreciation and recognition when an individual delivers as promised. This is an often missed step, but a small one that pays big dividends!If an individual shows a pattern of missing commitments, despite all of the efforts above, it’s time to have a one-on-one, open and honest, conversation. Make the person aware of the impact that the lack of follow through has on others and on the company. If this individual reports to you and still does not improve, it may be time to take more drastic steps. If the individual does not report to you but is a member of a team you lead, then it’s time to excuse him from the team and replace with a more reliable individual.
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Claire Zevalkink
Managing Partner
Profitable Growth Partners, LLC.

Tech Professionals Need Soft Skills To!

Daniel Schoonmaker
Published: February 5, 2007

GRAND RAPIDS — Profitable Growth Partners LLC founder Randy Bancino became painfully aware of the project implementation problems that plague corporate technology managers during his tenure as CIO of the multibillion-dollar Alticor Inc. Despite having the best talent and latest technology, a lack of soft skills at the ground level led projects to be over budget, late, ill equipped or to otherwise fail.

Statistically speaking, a successful software or information technology project is about as common as a base hit in professional baseball. Depending on the study, industry estimates of project failure range from 55 percent to 80 percent. The larger the project, the more likely it will fail to meet budget, deadline, user requirements or even be completed — with supply chain management, enterprise resource planning and customer relationship management programs failing more than 70 percent of the time.

"When we'd analyze why projects failed, it was almost never because the technology didn't work or because people didn't understand the technology or we didn't hire the right vendors," said Bancino. "It was almost always a lack of soft skills in some of our people."

For all technical people, whether it be in information technology, biomedical, structural engineering, legal or one of dozens of other fields, soft skills such as project management, time management, communication and conflict resolution tend to be overlooked competencies. In some roles — software integration, for instance — it can be a full-time job just keeping up to date with changing product specifications.

"Their concern is that they really need to know the technology, so it's easy to put the soft skills on the back burner," said Bancino, who also served as Quixtar's vice president of sales and marketing and as a longtime instructor in Western Michigan University's MBA program. "But if you back up and look more critically, it's those skills that will make you more successful."

Soft Core Skills for Hard Core Technical People is one of several customized training packages available through Profitable Growth Partners, the company Bancino launched last fall with fellow Alticor alum Claire Zevalkink. Many of the same concerns transfer to the firm's other offerings, including those aimed at new managers and leaders, woman managers, teambuilding, customer service and high-performance strategies.

"When you're working in teams, it's the soft skills that will make you effective," said Zevalkink, formerly Quixtar vice president of marketing and communications. She noted that the most common cause of technology project failures — some studies suggest as high as 95 percent — is the inability of a technical person to speak in terms that a non-technical person, such as a salesman or customer, can understand.

"That's a skill not a lot of technical people recognize that they need," she said, adding that the problem is common in all areas of specialty, particularly for attorneys, accountants and medical professionals.

This can be especially problematic for technical people as they move up the corporate ladder, Zevalkink said. "Now they have a staff of people, they're giving presentations to customers or upper management, and they just haven't learned a lot of the skills that they need." BJX