Getting The Results You Expect

Here’s a comment with a question that we often hear: “We try to hire the best people and then expect them to bring their best performance, but sometimes they don’t deliver. In your experience, what is the most effective way of holding people accountable when they aren’t getting the results you expect of them?”

Needless to say, desired results never automatically materialize just because you believe your people are the best or even because you expect the best from your people. Desired results are only achieved when you:

That’s how it works. So, to the question above, if you’re doing all of that and still not getting the results you expect, what should you do? First, make sure you really are doing all of that by applying the Accountability Sequence—Form, Communicate, Align, and Inspect. If the Accountability Sequence is solidly in place and the desired results are still not forthcoming, find out why by holding an Accountability Conversation with your key people. Determine exactly why they are not achieving the results you expect. Is the “why” about motivation (willingness), training (ability), accountability (follow through), or culture (work environment)?

The Vice President of Operations at a manufacturing company was frustrated with what he saw as an apparent lack of concern for a serious process design problem from his young engineering staff. When he finally took the time to hold Accountability Conversations with a few of his engineers, he discovered that they were unengaged because they perceived operations leadership to be resistant to their new ideas. Consequently, their motivation for solving the process design problem was almost non-existent. When the VP charged them with taking a crack at the problem, they, along with an experienced mentor from operations leadership, solved the problem so well that the company not only increased productivity but also saved millions in operating costs. Once the motivation problem and the associated cultural barriers had been addressed, the VP’s desired results were quickly achieved. As you might expect, the VP implemented a new policy of deploying teams of junior staff engineers and senior operating mentors to attack other issues throughout the manufacturing operations.

To learn more about how to apply the Accountability Sequence and Accountability Conversation whenever you’re not getting the results you expect, we invite you to join the Accountability Community at www.partnersinleadership.com where you can review actual client case studies.

Accountability Sequence, Accountability Conversation and Accountability Community are all registered trademarks of Partners In Leadership, Inc.