Coaching For Accountability

VICTORIA BROWN | APRIL 2023

As a new leader, coaching your team to achieve their goals can be a daunting task. You might still be finding your feet or you're still straddling that line between peer/friend/leader. You want your team to succeed, but sometimes it feels like they're not taking ownership of their work or delivering the results you expect. It's frustrating when your team misses deadlines or fails to meet expectations, and it can be tempting to simply take over and do the work yourself.

But that's not leadership, and it won't help your team grow and develop. As a leader, one of your most important roles is to coach your team for accountability - to help them take ownership of their work, stay on track, and deliver the results you need.

Coaching for accountability can be challenging, especially when you're new to leadership. You may be struggling to balance your own workload with coaching your team, or you may be unsure of how to communicate expectations and provide feedback effectively. But with the right strategies and mindset, coaching for accountability can become a natural part of your leadership style, and help your team achieve great things.

Setting Clear Expectations

One of the most important aspects of coaching for accountability is setting clear expectations. Your team needs to know exactly what they're responsible for and what's expected of them in terms of deliverables, timelines, and quality. Without clear expectations, it's easy for team members to lose focus or feel like they're not sure what they should be working on AND it makes it much harder for you as a leader to coach and manage performance - because you haven't told your team exactly what you expect so how can you discuss it with them if they're not meeting expectations. This step is as much about setting YOU up for success as it is about setting up your team. You'll get better at this over time, so don't worry if you don't get it right the first time.

To set clear expectations, start by defining the goals and objectives for your team. Make sure that everyone is on the same page and understands the big picture. Then, break down those goals into specific tasks and responsibilities, and communicate those expectations to your team. This could be done in a team meeting, or one-on-one conversations with each team member. There should be clear goals and expectations for each role (like in a Job Description) as well as any performance measures for the year. You might also have values and behaviours which dictate how you expect your team to navigate their role and the kinds of attitudes you do and don't accept.

It's also important to communicate expectations in a way that's clear and concise. Avoid using jargon or overly complicated language that could confuse your team members. Use simple, straightforward language to communicate what needs to be done and when it needs to be done by. This means it's easy to understand, but also easy for you to discuss and reinforce down the track if you need to. For example, make goals and objectives MEASURABLE, and make values and behaviors obvious with examples of what it does/doesn't look like.

As a new leader, setting clear expectations can be challenging. You may be unsure of what your team is capable of, or you may feel like you don't want to come across as too demanding. But remember, setting clear expectations is not about being demanding - it's about giving your team the clarity they need to do their best work. By setting clear expectations, you'll help your team stay on track and achieve their goals, while also building trust and respect with your team members.

Your checklist:

• ✅ Job Descriptions for your team. These are evergreen descriptions of the expectations of the role - what impact does this role have on the organisations results? It should be detailed and enable you to answer the question "is this person fulfilling what is expected of their role?" with examples of where they are, and where they aren't. 
• ✅ Clear goals for the relevant time period e.g. 2023 goals with measurable targets. These expectations are linked to a specific timeframe e.g. annually or quarterly. They should be SMART goals, with clear metrics and enable you to answer the question: “Is this person delivering on their goals for this (quarter,year, month)?” These work best when the outcomes are either “task delivered” or a quantifiable number e.g. X new clients onboarded so the achievement is binary (yes or no).
• ✅ Values and behaviours expectations clearly set. These expectations lay out the clear behavioural expectations, how you want your team to achieve their goals and navigate their roles and relationships. They should enable you to answer the question: “Does this person conduct themselves aligned to our company values and behaviours?” 

Tracking Progress, Providing Feedback, and Holding Your Team Accountable

Once you've set clear expectations for your team, the next step is to track progress, provide feedback, and hold your team accountable for meeting those expectations. This is where coaching for accountability really comes into play. You can check out more 

• USE YOUR 1:1s >> One effective strategy is to schedule regular check-ins with your team members to track progress and provide feedback. These check-ins can be weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly, depending on the size and complexity of your team's work. During these check-ins, review the progress made towards goals, and provide feedback on what's going well and what needs improvement.
• TIMELY FEEDBACK >> When providing feedback, it's important to be timely and constructive. Don't wait until the end of a project to provide feedback - provide it as soon as possible, so that your team members have time to course-correct and make changes. And when providing feedback, be specific and actionable. Avoid vague or general comments like "good job" or "try harder", and instead provide concrete feedback on what's working and what could be improved. Want to give feedback without being a jerk? Of course you do - read my guide here.
• CONSEQUENCES FOR ONGOING LACK OF ACCOUNTABILITY >> Of course, coaching for accountability also involves holding your team members accountable when expectations are not met. This can be a challenging task, especially if you're new to leadership. But it's important to address accountability issues promptly and directly, rather than letting them fester and become bigger problems. One effective way to address accountability issues is to establish consequences for missed expectations. For example, if a team member consistently misses deadlines, there should be a consequence for that, such as additional training or coaching, or a performance improvement plan. It's also important to communicate these consequences clearly to your team members, so that they know what to expect.
• CELEBRATE AND REWARD ACCOUNTABILITY >> When you DO see your team crushing goals, taking ownership of their work and generally thriving, make sure you celebrate this. Give recognition in business meetings or team meetings, and make sure you take notes to bring this up when they have their next review.

The HALO effect of accountability

In addition to helping your team achieve their goals, coaching for accountability has numerous benefits for both your team and your business. When team members know that they're being held accountable for their work, they're more likely to take ownership and responsibility for their projects. This sense of ownership can lead to increased motivation and engagement, as well as higher-quality work. For the business, a culture of accountability can lead to improved productivity and efficiency, as well as better outcomes for clients or customers. And for you as a new leader, coaching for accountability can help you establish your leadership style and build trust and respect with your team. When your team members see that you're committed to their success and holding them accountable, they're more likely to trust and respect you as a leader.

This "halo effect" can have positive impacts on team morale, retention rates, and overall business success - in a nutshell, coaching for accountability means a happier, higher performing team so thats why this is a no brainer skill you need to learn how to master as early in your leadership as you can.

Check out the How To Be A Head Coach mini-course if you want to get a jumpstart on your coaching skills.

Happy coaching!

VB