When you run a business, you need your team to execute your strategy and achieve your business goals. You can only influence them indirectly, you can’t control their actions directly.
In reality however, you might find that your team doesn’t follow through with tasks. It’s one of the most common challenges when growing a business. Why don’t they just do what I ask them to do?
In this article, I want to shed light on where a lack of accountability comes from and how to hold employees accountable. Hint: It’s not their fault, it’s yours. Read to the end for a sure fire way to fix it.
Your team doesn’t follow through
When your team doesn’t follow through with tasks, it typically means that you
- ask them to start doing something and they don’t;
- ask them to stop doing something and they continue;
- ask them to work towards a long-term goal and they drop the ball.
We’re not talking about your team neglecting you or your asks. Instead, they’re trying and it works for a while, but then it stops working after a couple of days or weeks.
There are three reasons why your employees don’t follow through.
You didn’t task them properly
Firstly, often your employees might not have received a good briefing. If they don’t know what exactly you want them to do, with what goal in mind, and why it’s important, then there’s a high likelihood that they will drop the ball.
You don’t provide what they need
Secondly, your team might not have the right tools to execute what you asked them to do. If they don’t know how to do something, or lack the resources to do it, they won’t follow through.
You don’t consistently show them you mean it
If you’re like most CEOs we work with, you bombard your team with varying, conflicting or changing demands and priorities over short periods of time. In absence of predictable and reliable priorities, your employees will decide themselves what’s important and what isn’t.
How to hold employees accountable
For your employees to execute your strategy reliably, you’ll have to make sure you fix the three shortcomings above.
Communicate your strategy well and use strategy execution framework
Give your team a clear plan on what goals you’re trying to accomplish and when. Only with context will they understand why things are important.
Also, translating your strategic goals into tasks isn’t something that happens automatically. You need to implement a strategy execution framework. That means breaking down your long-term goals into manageable chunks of work, and then assigning them to the team.
A task that is visibly and directly derived from your strategy has much more importance than if you just tell your employee to do something.
Also, each task itself needs to be clearly defined, have a deadline and a clear description of what constitutes success.
Provide the necessary information and resources to execute the task
Next to having full clarity of the task, your employees also need the information and resources to complete the task.
For recurring tasks, there should be a process defined and documented.
You need to make sure that your team has the right software to execute the task.
If budget is required, make sure it’s clearly defined upfront what that budget is.
Your employee needs the implicit or explicit decision-making authority that’s required to complete the task.
Also, make sure your employees have the right skill set to do what you want from them. If not, make sure you provide training.
Be consistent
In my experience, a lack of consistency kills accountability more often than anything else. And the source is often the CEO, especially in smaller service businesses.
Only if you show your team that the task you gave them is and stays a priority, will they follow through with it.
Here’s what you need to do:
- Stick to your goals until you have reached them. And on the task level for your team: Allow enough time for completion, and don’t change priorities while your team is still working on the last goals.
- Consistently show your employees that the task or initiative you delegated to them is a priority. Meet them regularly and follow up on the progress and the status of the task.
- Establish a central place or format (Asana, a spreadsheet, etc.) where employees track progress. Make this the central source of truth for you check-ins.
- Support them in removing roadblocks and eliminating constraints. Only if they get the support they need to complete the task will they be able to and feel it’s important.
- Refrain from establishing new strategic priorities while the team’s still working on the last ones. That requires you to keep the time horizon for planning reasonably small, so you can still react to business requirements without breaking the cycle. Four to 12 weeks typically works well.
If you need additional support in following up, consider hiring a fractional COO. Follow this framework consistently, and your team will deliver what you ask them to.
