Holding employees accountable with empathy.

This is the ultimate struggle

Because if you supervise another person, you expect your employees to do their job.

But sometimes they don’t

Or it’s not up to the quality you need or expect

Now you need to figure out how to give this critical feedback and get them to do what you need them to do. And from the countless managers I’ve worked with, whether your style is too passive or too aggressive, you have to learn how to thread the needle.

I got you

Today, I’ll talk about how to address it in the moment AND how you can reduce the anxiety with one question.

Addressing it in the moment

I’ll be real clear right away, WHEN do you address something going not going well?

As soon as possible.

Don’t delay – the more you delay, the harder it gets, and the more off track the assignment or project gets.

As soon as you notice it, bring it up:

“Hey Craig, I noticed that you missed the deadline for processing invoices for our vendors. That means we’ll have to wait until next month to get reimbursed. Could you tell me what happened?”

Or try any of these:

“What got in the way?”

“Did you know that this was a strict deadline?”

In addition to the questions, it comes down to knowing what your process is.

If this is a first-time mistake and not a huge impact -> maybe it means you document and provide coaching for future work

If this has happened before and you’ve tried coaching –> maybe it means starting the progressive discipline process (warnings)

If this has happened before, you’ve tried coaching and it is a BIG deal   -> maybe it means a written warning or termination.

If there’s a process in place, you have to be willing to follow it if you want to hold people accountable. Give them feedback, provide coaching, and any additional resources if needed.

But if you keep giving chances and ignore the actual process, you’re sending the message that it’s not a big deal and they can keep doing it.

Look, my whole profession is about giving people chances and providing good coaching and feedback, but the more you allow them to do something wrong, the more you’re reinforcing the wrong behavior. 

And this impacts everyone:

Them by teaching them the wrong thing

Their teammates by setting a culture where poor performance is allowed

Yourself by giving yourself more work

The organization by missing out on revenue, or increased expenses, or inefficiencies

You’re not doing them any favors by giving them more chances.

How to reduce this

You can actually reduce the anxiety of this situation by asking this one question at the beginning when you give someone a task.

In this book, “Never Split the Difference”, Chris Voss offers an incredible question:

“How do you want to address this if you’re not able to complete it?”

Or

“How should we address this if you’re not able to get this done?”

This isn’t an accusation that you don’t believe in them.

It’s an opportunity to engage them in a dialog and acknowledge the reality of potential barriers.

They can be part of the process in determining how to identify and address barriers and they can help think through what the check-in process should be and how that you can correct it together.

If they can’t think of anything, you can suggest ideas and also remind them of progressive discipline process.

To be clear – being empathic and caring doesn’t mean you let people do whatever they want and don’t bring consequences when necessary.

Being empathic and caring means providing every possible support to help people be successful – and also holding them to appropriate standards.

You got this, good luck!

Cheers,

Chris

PS –

If you’re looking for strategies to be better at coaching your employees >>>>> Check out this link to a free 1-hour course on effective performance coaching.

If you are a nonprofit leader stuck in being able to move things ahead in your organization due to people challenges, check out this white paper I just published on overcoming barriers to strategic plan implementation >>>>> Download a free copy here.

If you’re a nonprofit leader, I created a 5-minute free assessment that will help you assess your readiness capability for strategic planning and implementation. If you’re interested in taking it, reply back and let me know!