For remote work to be successful, it is vital to ensure your team is aligned on accountability. Many people shy away from these conversations, but when you can bubble them up and are clear on how you want to handle the topic, you will save yourself a lot of headaches in the long run.
Here are some factors to consider with accountability:
1. Hire the right people. When you hire doers eager to get great work done, you are set up for success. Once you provide direction and guidance around important things to be executed, doers will make things happen. One of Zapier's core values is "default to action," and one of Amazon’s principles is “bias for action.” For these organizations, recruiting people with these tendencies who have a deep appreciation for getting things done is vital.
2. Focus on goals and outcomes over activities. It would help if you did not try to manage every aspect of your team’s work or focus on activities completed and hours logged, instead measuring your team’s effectiveness on their accomplishments and KPIs. If they are meeting their goals, great. If not, you can investigate further to learn why and realign expectations. Your job as a leader is to help define what the work is to be done and allow them to figure out how they plan to approach the project for success, and then follow up to discuss progress.
3. Offer flexibility and trust. The mentality of ROWE (Results Only Work Environment) allows workers flexibility to decide how they want to arrange their day for maximum output. If that means starting work later so they can take their kids to school or arranging a quick tennis match during their lunch break to get a 2nd wind to produce high-quality work, so be it. Give them the autonomy to decide how they want to get the job done that suits their needs and situation, especially if it is not negatively impacting the team.
4. Align expectations and promote self-accountability. At NASA, they use a fire-and-forget approach. Once somebody has shared the work to be done and had the conversation around expectations, they can dismiss the task from their mind because they know that they can rely on their teammate to manage and monitor themselves without reminders. It’s an enjoyable atmosphere to trust your coworkers that the work will get done without having to send constant follow-ups or check-ins on status. If unforeseen circumstances occur, you can trust that they will be proactive, bring the matter to your attention, and renegotiate the agreement because there is always the consideration of how the actions of one will impact the entire team.
5. Address incomplete work early on. Often, leaders dread hard conversations when deadlines are missed. Be sure to follow up early to understand what’s behind this behavior and have commitment-based actions and plans to move forward differently and more productively. If you do not say anything, you are offering a tacit agreement that their behavior works, and you are willing to put up with more of it. The responsibility is more on you to determine what you will and will not allow than on them pushing the envelope.
6. Do check-ins, not check-ups. As a manager, you can check in with your teammates to see how things are, and if they need support to unblock their path or help them think through their challenges. This is different from check-ups with a more monitoring feeling; where it seems like you are trying to catch them doing something wrong. Being clear about your check-ins from the outset and the reason why can build a trusting relationship. For example, if somebody does not have a lot of experience with a project, you can share that you will do more frequent early check-ins to make sure there is alignment and they are set up for success rather than them getting far in a project only to have some of it rolled back because it is not meeting the target. Once the work is moving along well, you can share that you plan to change the check-in cadence.
Getting accountability right will save your team a tremendous amount of time and energy. It begins by defining whom we want to be as a team and putting in the processes that support those goals. It also involves having the right conversations to raise awareness, and so people have ample opportunity to course correct. When accountability is done well, it is an extraordinary component of a successful team.
Quote of the day: “Creating a culture of integrity and accountability not only improves effectiveness, but it also generates a respectful, enjoyable, and life-giving setting in which to work.” -Tom Hanson
Q: What accountability approaches have you found work the best for remote working? What is the trickiest part? Comment and share below; we would love to hear from you!
The next blog in this series 6/11 will focus on optimizing your remote 1:1s. For a deeper dive into accountability, you can also check out this 3-part series.
As a leadership development and executive coach, I work with leaders to create enjoyable remote work experiences for themselves and their teams, contact me to explore this topic further.
How do you offer supportive accountability?