Benefits:

• Frees you up to do your critical managerial work
• Less stress, when you can confidently rely on them
• Faster development of staff to full performance levels
• Confident, engaged employees inclined to rise up to their full potential
• Unit productivity rises due to an overall culture of personal accountability
  

Get over your need to tell your staff what to do and how to do it.

Managers are problem solvers. Their default style, honed over many years, is to take responsibility and come up with solutions to problems. When coaching your staff to be more accountable, however, you must overcome any needs you have to relieve your own anxiety that is triggered by questions unanswered and decisions unmade.

Let them know you expect them to take responsibility.

Early on in your working relationship, tell your employee that you expect him to come up with most answers to work-related problems and that you want him to take prime responsibility for his work performance, career aspirations and job satisfaction. That said, however, that you will still be there as a support, coach and advisor.

Give them clear goals and a lot of latitude around how to achieve them.

You have a major role setting–with employee involvement, ideally–their work objectives and performance standards. Beyond that, however, let them choose how they will accomplish their work goals. If they go off track or fall behind, you can always step in and lead a discussion about what they could do differently to recover.

Ease off your direction as soon as they start to get it right.

Situational Leadership® teaches that the amount of direction and support you give an employee around a particular task depends on her (1) motivation & self-confidence and (2) competency to perform it. Employees may well require your active involvement with new responsibilities but as soon as they don’t, get out of the way!

Resist solving their problems; turn it back on them for the solution.

When an employee brings you a question or problem that she should be able to handle…and you solve it…everyone feels good and we can all get on with our work. But you are building dependency, not accountability. Instead, ask her for her ideas.

Ask questions that focus on their thinking process, not the details

First of all, get her to identify what she wants from you…the solution? advice? ideas? or perhaps just a sympathetic ear? Then, invite her direct involvement with questions such as “What have you tried or considered? What might be a solution or course of action? Where could you get that information?”

Recognize and acknowledge when they take responsibility.

It requires courage to take on accountability. After all, you could fail. So, whenever an employee does step up and take responsibility for solving a problem, improving his performance or identifying his career aspirations and possible development plans, this is precisely the kind of behavior you want encourage and reinforce.