Holding your employees accountable

Accountability is a powerful thing.  The act of holding someone accountable is normally an unpleasant experience that most people generally like to avoid.  Confrontation is something that most normal people don’t feel comfortable dealing with.

But when you are in a leadership position, confrontation and accountability are just part of the job.  Unfortunately you are going to have employees who make mistakes and sometimes do the wrong thing and it is up to you to make the right decision on how to handle it.

Most companies have guidelines and rules or policies that are pretty easy and clear cut.  Miss work too much, make a decision that is detrimental to the company, or poor performance will more than likely end up with some type of reprimand.

Your role in this process is critical.  Do you think that Joe, who is always calling out sick, will magically change his ways and start showing up every day unless you take action?  Doubtful.  Attendance is an easy and straightforward issue to deal with.

Knowing where to draw the line on performance can be a little more tricky.  Normally you will want to keep good records and documentation of a poor performer if you want your actions to stick.  There is nothing that will make a good accountability session blow up in your face than if you don’t have good documentation of the action they took (or didn’t take).

A bad judgment call can also be hard to reprimand someone for.  I usually look at it in terms of what it cost the company.  If the associate made a decision that was poor in judgment and cost the company money, I’ll pull the trigger nine times out of ten.  Again, just make sure you have the documentation that supports your decision.

Typically as long as you follow the guidelines and policies set forth by your company and treat the employee with respect throughout the process, you don’t have to worry about your superior overturning your decision.  Don’t make it personal, and remember that it’s only business.

One of my favorite things to tell people is to never mix business and personal, only state the facts.  Not only will your associates respect you more, you will have a better chance of keeping this already difficult situation calm and under control.  Not to mention that the outcome of your actions will (hopefully) result in an improvement in the associate’s behavior.

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