Take Ownership and Demand that there is Accountability in your Workplace
Successful organizations have leaders that hold their employees accountable for achieving the goals established for them in the workplace. Leaders must validate that their employees understand the goals established for them and those goals have been clearly communicated. Leaders have measurable outcomes for employees to meet the objectives set for them. Leaders should be communicating to every employee what is an acceptable and what is unacceptable performance levels.
When leadership fails to hold their employees accountable for achieving established goals; it will come back and reflect on the performance of their leadership. When leaders are not able to engage and get support form their employees, their success as a leader will be in serious jeopardy. No leader can benefit from having employees that are not performing the expectations of their job.
Leaders need to keep the communication channels open and monitor the work performance of their employees. Effective leadership meets on a regular basis with their employees to make sure that they can meet established goals. When employees are not meeting established goals and are missing deadlines that have been set for them, this is the time for leadership to step in and address why the employees is not performing to expected standards. The leader should be asking the under performing employee how they plan to correct their work performance and meet the expectations of their job. Leadership must hold each under-performing employee accountable to improve their performance or face termination.
No employee likes to be micro-managed; leaders need to give their employees enough room to manage their own responsibilities. If leadership retains too much responsibility, employees will resent and feel they are not respected by leadership. No employee is the same;+ managers should give more responsibility to individuals that are more skilled and show motivation to complete tasks. On the other hand, some employees that need to build their skills will need closer monitoring and support from management.
A major component of having accountable employees is that every employee can critique their performance and recognize when they have done their job well. Motivated and high performing employees will ask for feedback from their leadership, and for support to take on other projects. High performing employees expect to be held accountable by their leadership.
Most employees want to do a good job, leadership needs to help employees that are struggling with their performance. Performance improvement plans will help employees with performance issues and clearly communicate that the performance plan is the method to ensure that they have the skills and knowledge to do their job. Leadership must make it clearly understood that the employee will be held accountable to meet the expectations of their performance improvement plan or face termination.
Holding employees accountable for completing their tasks is a major responsibility of all leaders. If employees are not meeting their expectations, leaders must address with the employee what they plan to do differently. It must be clearly communicated by leadership that every employee that works for them will be held accountable for their own work performance.
