SMART Accountability

I just had a great discussion with a new manager. He was lamenting the fact that he had an employee who “wouldn’t listen,” who “knew what his priorities were” and who resented the fact that his once colleague was now his manager. This employee was indirectly defying and challenging his new manager’s authority and in the process had created a hostile environment. An environment that was devoid of mutual trust and respect. The new manager was not looking forward to confronting the employee and saw his only course of action to be one of disciplining him.

I agreed that discipline was warranted here, but not the reactive discipline as classically understood, such as a parent scolding a child or a principal punishing a student, but instead the proactive discipline of adhering to the tenets of accountability and empowerment.

My guidance to that manager was to meet with his employee one-on-one, present him with the SMART objective worksheet, and ask him to put together the first draft of what he thought his goals were, holding the employee accountable to come up with his own goals. (Reflective of the philosophy of pushing accountability to the lowest level of the organization.) 

As an aside, the internet has multiple resources about SMART goal setting and I’ve placed a few links at the bottom of this article, but in brief, the essence of SMART goals is to have a well-defined plan with specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, timely goals that are aligned throughout the organization.

However, when I made this suggestion to the new manager I learned that he did not have his own written SMART objectives, nor did he have the SMART objectives of his leader! In the absence of clearly defined and well-communicated objectives, dysfunction will reign! Now my guidance to this new manager expanded in scope. I challenged him to create his own objectives in the SMART format and then set up a meeting with his leader to review them prior to meeting with his employee. 

If accountability is missing in an organization, any employee can take the initiative to bring it into the organization. Once he had alignment with his leader, the new manager could now take his own objectives to share with his employee. It is imperative that before you can hold an employee accountable, you first hold yourself accountable.

In order to keep the accountability at the lowest level, and to have specific measurable tasks, not only did I suggest that the manager ask the employee to put together his own objectives, I suggested that the manager ask the employee to give him the date upon which he will have his first draft of the objectives finished. The manager was to also request that the employee set up the meeting to review the objectives. In this manner, the employee is accountable to initiate the actions. The manager was to let the employee know that he would be available if the employee needed any help throughout the process.

With these clearly articulated, well-supported documented requests, the employee is set up for success, and hopefully will rise to the occasion and collaboratively put together his objectives so that he and his new manager have a well-defined plan of action. If however, the employee fails to execute on the tasks and refuses to ask for help, then the manager will have no choice but to step into the realm of corrective actions. Although, when done at this point, there will be written, measurable, unemotional performance expectations upon which to base the corrective action.

I’m oftentimes amazed at how many companies don’t have clearly defined objectives in place and don’t regularly review, communicate and update them. If you find yourself in this situation, take the time to create your own objectives based on what you know about the company and present them to your manager for approval. This is proactive and should build trust and respect, as you will be showing your manager that not only do you hold yourself accountable, but that you also want to be held accountable.

To learn more about the leadership topics of organizational development, operational excellence, resource leveraging, and intellectual asset management, send me a note at      

info@ventusstrategies.com

https://www.developgoodhabits.com/smart-goals-templates/

https://trio.ucsd.edu/_files/staff_forms/SMART%20goal%20setting%20sheet

https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/how-to-write-a-smart-goal-template

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