Accountability? 

It’s something successful recruitment business owners develop in their team. 

It’s ‘must–do’ activity for genuinely successful people. 

So how do you go about getting more accountability from your team? This is such a common challenge amongst so many recruitment leaders and senior managers right now, and it’s a topic I get asked about frequently. 

Not surprising really, because it causes such inherent long-term damage to the performance of consultants and teams and the overall success of your business when you have individuals in your team that aren’t accountable.  

And the thing is that very few recruitment business owners and managers are adequately skilled in this area, yet it is the backbone to building key fundamentals that are critical to your team’s success, such as; 

  • trust, 
  • empowerment,  
  • initiative,  
  • deeper internal relationships,  
  • ….and a culture of true ownership. 

So, with this in mind, here are five immediate solutions that you can take and implement right now to gain accountability in your business.  

1. Is Your Team Clear on What’s Expected of Them? 

What I mean by this is, if you agree on specific commitments or actions with your team, make sure you check back with that team member, so they know exactly what’s expected of them with that task.  

Do this by repeating back what it is that they understand their task or objective is. 

So, they need to give you the specific actions and results that they need to be delivering against timeframes. Here is something critical; get them to put that down on paper and email to you, so you both have a written copy of their commitment with an agreed date. 

2. Always Follow Up on Their Commitments

Important; ensure you follow up with them on their commitments. This is the biggest complaint I hear from consultants.  

“My manager doesn’t follow up with me. We agree to specifics, and they don’t ask me about them again. We just make new actions every week, every month, and nothing happens with them.”  

Ouch! 

Now I know we’re busy people, but this has to be achieved because if you don’t follow through on what you’ve asked them to do, then what’s their motivation to do it and their belief and commitment start to go? 

Make sure you follow up with them and demonstrate your accountability as you lead from the front. 

Fact: This is non-negotiable, and seriously it will change your team’s commitment to you and their results. 

3. Give Regular and Constructive Feedback

Next, make sure you give regular and constructive feedback to your consultants and team.  

Here I’m talking about specifics with facts, figures, and observed evidence of what they’ve done well and where they can develop their successes and skills even better. I want to add here that it’s essential that you stick to factual evidence when you give feedback. Please don’t confuse this with emotional opinions. You need to make sure you’re sticking to direct facts. 

For instance: ‘you said you were going to send out 60 CVs this week and yet only 30 have been sent,  Tom?’ 

This is observed evidence.  

Rather than, ‘Tom, you aren’t working hard enough’. This is a judgment based on your interpretation of what you ‘think’ Tom is or isn’t doing. 

4. Make Feedback Timely

Number four is that feedback must be timely. So, if you give feedback, you must give it when it’s happened. You’re not serving your team and helping them to grow if you don’t give them that feedback as soon as you’ve seen it. Don’t avoid it and think: I’ll do it later. As we all know, later never comes! Instead do it straight away, and you will be respected for it. 

5. Lead from The Front

 

Then finally, lead from the front. Be accountable yourself. Encourage a culture of accountability across your business, starting with you. Share your commitments and hold yourself accountable to your team. 

Here are some ideas that work for many of our clients: 

  • Have weekly shares or forums 
  • Visual boards 
  • Accountability actions  

This way, people can see what’s been achieved and what individuals are committing to be accountable for and who is following through. 

So, if you’d like to have more information about developing a culture of true accountability which delivers a high performing team, let’s talk.  

You can book a Profit Accelerator call with one of us by clicking the link here. We will help you uncover your hidden profit centres in your business, and your team is just one of them. 

Thanks  

Katy