Need More Business Accountability? Consider Coaching for Improvement

We hear the word “accountability” referenced a lot lately, both in business and government arenas.

Some consumers and stakeholders are even insisting that businesses be held to higher standards—that they be held more accountable. In order to do that, of course, a business must figure out ways to hold its people accountable.

How can a business accomplish this? One way for a business to hold its people accountable is through a “coaching for improvement” strategy.

Human resource professionals know that successful business leaders effectively coach their employees to attain higher levels of performance, both as individuals and as members of teams. Essentially, during a coaching for improvement process, employees are held accountable for working toward certain goals that are put into place.

By contrast, when business leaders fail to put goals into place and communicate those goals (from the top down), they are also failing to reinforce the kind of results they want to see, or the employee behaviors they want to see.

If your business wants to develop a coaching for improvement strategy, there are a few basic steps to follow.  Basically, you will want to:  

1. Transfer or share a commitment to organizational goals with the team.
2. Empower the team by affording them the authority to make decisions.
3. Build and fortify the commitment.
4. Expect or require team input.
5. Establish individual and team goals.
6. Tie goals to performance.

You will also want to train supervisors so they can aid in coaching employees to achieve higher levels of accountability and enhance their development.

For example, and keeping in mind the six basic steps outlined above:

Let’s say that you have a quota for employees to produce 400 data entries per day. Not only that, you want them to make 400 accurate data entries per day.

This figure represents what you will hold them accountable for; so you will share that goal with the team. And, with respect to individuals, you will hold each team member accountable for those results, which in turn, will give you the performance data.

In other words, this process is like a cycle. As one part of the cycle, you’re holding the individual accountable for attaining the goal; and, to close the cycle loop, you’re holding the team accountable. In closing the cycle, then, you are making the goal a shared-team goal.

Most importantly, the manager or leader is also individually held accountable, which helps ensure that the commitment is transferred down from the top.

Here is what organizations have to watch out for, however.

In my role as an HR professional, I see leaders who are strongly, strongly committed to the business. They also have this control which can eventually result in the leaders doing everything themselves. This usually happens because they have a fear of letting go; and because they fear that not everyone else applies the same high standards (that leaders so often espouse to) to the results.

Ironically, the reality is, when leaders do let go, they will see individual and team production levels increase.  This again is where a coaching for improvement strategy can make all the difference.

In a future HRTools.com Insight, I will review other pitfalls to watch out for, in addition to sharing experiences that can help fine-tune a coaching for improvement process.

If your business wants to develop a coaching for improvement strategy, there are a few basic steps to follow.