Accountability in the Workplace Tip #4 – Goals and Expectations

Setting SMART Goals and Clear Expectations are an essential part of the process of achieving higher levels of accountability with your peers and employees. Goals must be determined before expectations can be set and Expectations have to be set before someone can be held accountable for meeting them. Often we use the terms Goals and Expectations interchangeably. This happens most often when expectations are implied during the goal setting process. For example, when setting the goal to reduce errors in a process by 25% there is an implied expectation: you make 25% less mistakes. However, there are significant differences between goals and expectations. A Goal is something to strive for; a target to reach but it is not an obligation other than the obligation to try. An Expectation on the other hand
is an obligation considered reasonable, due and necessary. In performance management terms, the expectation is the minimum acceptable performance level and a goal is some point beyond the expectation that the manager and employee have agreed to target. Going forward from here, I will talk setting goals and expectation and the process for both are nearly the same as long as you keep in mind the differences: Targets vs. Obligations.

The goal and expectation setting process is not a complicated one. It can be difficult to pick the absolute right point to place as a goal or expectation, but in most cases it is less critical to be absolutely correct than it is to get a goal set and get commitments to striving to those goals. If you follow the guidelines for setting SMART goals, you should be fine. Many books, papers and websites give great detail to setting SMART goals but I’ll run through the basics. First the acronym:

S – Specific

    M – Measurable

    A – Attainable

    R – Relevant

    T – Time bound

Specific:

Both Goals and Expectations should be very clear, unambiguous and specific. There is no place for vagrancies when setting goals because a specific objective has a much greater chance of being accomplished. Specificity also facilitates measuring progress towards achievement. In the context of developing goals, Specific means that an observable and quantifiable action, behavior or result is described which is also linked to a measure of some type such as a rate, number, or percentage. Using the previous error rate goal as an example it is not enough to say our goal is to reduce errors. The goal should be quantified more specifically. To do so, you and the employee(s) need to answer and agree to six “W” questions:

Who: Who is involved?

What: What do we want to accomplish?

Where: Identify a location.

When: Establish a time frame.

Which: Identify requirements and constraints.

Why: Specific reasons, purpose or benefits of accomplishing the goal

Measurable:

The old adage is that if you don’t measure it, you can’t control it. What good is a goal that you cannot tell if any progress is being made on it? So to be effective you must create a tracking system to measure progress on reaching the goal that provides feedback in a timely basis. Let’s use a real life example that nearly all companies want to improve upon – Customer Satisfaction. Everyone wants to improve on customer satisfaction. But how do you measure customer satisfaction in a way that is measurable in real time so that feedback can be given to the people that are trying to improve? Typical measurements are surveys that can take weeks to get back therefore delaying feedback for periods much too long to effect any real change. When facing this challenge, break the overall goal down into more manageable buckets. What are the controllable components of customer satisfaction that your employees directly control that can be measured? If you in a call center environment it could be things like:

• Time to call resolution
• Number of call escalations
• Number customer calls per issue

One note of caution goes back to a previous post: select the right measurement or you may get the wrong result.

Attainable:

Both Goals and Expectations should be achievable. Since expectations are obligatory, they have to be doable. That does not mean that they have to be easy but you must put people in a position to be successful or you are dooming them, and you, to failure. Goals, on the other, should stretch people more than expectations. They still should be achievable, even if it takes what for the individual is a herculean effort. Beyond this, the goal becomes ridiculous and it actually becomes a demotivator and a source of dissension in your organization.

Relevant:

Goals and expectations should be relevant to both the individual and the organization. A goal for which an employee has no influence upon is again worse than irrelevant, it is a distraction and a demotivator. Setting a goal or expectation to increase sales on a production line worker is not only irrelevant it is not attainable.

Time Bound:

Both goals and expectations need to have distinct starting and ending points. If the goal has a significant duration (this will vary by what the goal is) then a series of milestones should be defined. This increases the sense of urgency for accomplishing the objectives. Human nature being what it is, most people wait until the last moment to get things done. By setting a series of short interval milestones, then you can help the employee be successful by ensuring that they are taking incremental steps in achieving the overall goal or expectation.

When Goals are not needed:

There are also many times when goals are not needed in order to set expectations. Would you really go through a goal setting exercise in order to set the expectation that someone is to come to work on time? No. Nor should you. Some things in the workplace are not or nor should they be negotiable. Honesty, integrity, reliability, loyalty are all attributes that should be simple expectations in any organization that are framed in goals. These are pure obligations that come with employment or membership in the organization. A job description is another example of expectations that are not necessarily tied to goals. A job description states the minimum expectation of someone filling a certain role.

Tip # 5 will pick back up where Tip #3 left off in the process of improving workplace accountability.

Accountability in the Workplace Tip #3

In this article, we will be focusing on the initial steps to begin changing the behaviors that lead to a higher level of accountability. For this article, we will assume that you are the official leader of this group; i.e. you are the boss. Being the boss makes it much easier to drive behavior changes but that does not mean that you cannot do it if you are not the boss. It just takes longer and you must think more strategically. We will cover tips for the non-boss later on in this series. We will also assume that you have read Tips 1 & 2 and have begun implementing the suggestions from those articles. This piece builds squarely on those two steps so if you have not read those tips then I suggest you do so now.

At this point you should be personally demonstrating a higher level of accountability yourself and have built a consensus among your staff and employees that change is needed in their behavior. Now you need to take positive steps to create the beginnings of group wide change. First, tell them as a group what you are going to do and ask for their help in accomplishing it. What you are going to do is to do a better job of developing SMART Goals, setting clear expectations around those goals and following up on a regular, timely and proactive basis. What you need their help in is developing and agreeing to those SMART Goals, asking questions to ensure that expectations are clear, and be ready with real answers when you follow-up. You will need to explain in detail what each of those steps entails and how it will affect them personally. We will come back to each one of these items and address them separately so that you understand them yourself. As I have stated several times in the other tips, this is a lifestyle change. You and every member of your group will have to do things differently.

Next, you want to schedule a one-on-one meeting with each individual on your team. During this meeting, you will need to confirm their support. They will need to understand that you are going to be asking more of them and that you will be following up on a more frequent basis. This does not mean that you have lost faith in them or that they are doing anything wrong. What it means is that you are interested in their being successful in accomplishing their goals, that the only way you can help them is to ask questions, and for them to be forthcoming about their progress and the problems they are encountering in accomplishing those tasks. Once agreement and support has been achieved, then delve into the goals development and the setting of expectations. The individual meetings require planning. The more time spent on planning the meeting, the shorter and more productive the meeting will be. As a rule of thumb, meetings of this type should take an equal amount of time to plan as to execute. In other words planning for a half hour meeting should take about a half hour. A little longer for the first couple and a little less as you develop your theme and rhythm. While planning the meeting consider the individual and their strengths and weaknesses, how they are performing currently and what you want the outcome of the meeting to be. You should define in writing what goals do you want them to agree to, and how are you going to position them to reach those goals. Putting it in writing will help you clarify it in your mind and increase your resolve to get that outcome. You should also list out your expectations in writing so that you don’t forget to cover a critical point. You cannot hold someone accountable to an expectation you never set. At the end of the meeting, you should summarize the goals and expectations and get verbal agreement as to what was agreed upon. Immediately following the meeting, those items should be documented in writing and a copy given to the employee for their records.

In Tip #4, we will take a step back and review how to set SMART goals and clear expectations.

Accountabilty in the Workplace – Tip #2

To recap, the first tip for raising accountability in the workplace was about you setting the example for your peers and employees. Before you can expect people to do what you ask of them, you have to show a willingness to do the same.

The next tip is about communication.

Today’s workforce is much different from the workforce of past decades. Today’s workforce will not blindly follow along just because the boss said to. Some say this is due to a higher education in general. While this is true, I also believe that a different reason has a greater impact. We as a society have decreased the level of discipline that we impose upon our children as they grow up. We ask less of them, and require a lower level of obedience. One of the results of this is that our children question our decisions on a greater level of frequency than ever before. There are many other results but I’ll let Bill O’Rielly and the other talking heads to weigh in on those.

Whatever the reason, the result is the same – today’s worker is less likely to do something just because you say so. They want to understand why they need to act differently. Remember, this is a lifestyle change just like losing weight or to quit smoking. You have to communicate the reasons why it is imperative that the group changes.

You will also have to have irrefutable proof of the problem. There will be finger pointing and deflection of responsibility on this issue just like any other and maybe even more.

So knowing that people will not blindly follow along until they understand and agree that there is a problem you have to plan a communication strategy to put the group in this position. Most people would say okay lets hold a meeting to tell everyone this and show the proof. You could of course do this and with a meek and mild group it may work. However, one of the best pieces of management advice that I ever received is to never have a meeting until the outcome is already determined. This means that you will need to do a lot of one-on-one communication and politicking. In a one-on-one situation you can custom tailor your message to the one person you are talking to. Your arguments, your proofs, and your counters are all specifically tailored to that one person. Furthermore, if the outcome is different or unexpected, it is in private and you do not give the opposition a chance to build momentum as you would if this came out in front of the group.

You also need a plan beyond just positioning agreement that there is a problem. You need to know what direction you want to head. I’m not saying that at this point you need to have a detailed plan, such as bringing in consultants tomorrow, but you need the group to leave the meeting with some specific actions to go accomplish that will take the group closer to the answer.

Now you are ready to hold a group meeting. You know who your allies are and you know where the opposition is going to come from. You have a plan to deal with the opposition and you have a plan of action going forward. If you are really good at setting yourself up for success, you have several key people ready to lead the conversation without you having to say a word.

This is just the beginning of your communication plan. Now that you have put the issue on the table in the open you cannot let it drop. You have to keep talking about accountability and responsibility on a daily basis. You also have to start doing things differently with others. That is the focus of the next tip.

Accountability and Performance Management – Tip #1

Tip #1 for Raising Accountability in the workplace

In most X step programs the first step is always the most difficult, until you get to the next step of course. All steps in correcting any major life issue are tough steps because they involve lifestyle changes. This is true whether you are trying to quit smoking, lose weight, or what ever. The same is true with raising accountability in your work place. It involves lifestyle changes. YOU have to think and act differently. Thats right YOU. If YOU want to change the people around you, then YOU have to act differently. It all starts with YOU.

You have to act more accountable.
You have to act more responsible for your own actions.
You have to stop blaming others for your failures.
You have to stop accepting credit for other peoples accomplishments.
You have to stop making excuses.
You have to stop pointing fingers and placing blame.

You see its one of those leadership things – You can’t ask others to do something you yourself are not willing to do.

It is my experience that most corporate culture change initiatives fail because the leadership of the corporation expects for everyone else to change but see no reason for themselves to change. They fail to exhibit the leadership neccessary for the change to take place. The people below them see no change above and conclude, rather accurately I must say, that it cannot be that important to change because the compnay’s leaders are not changing.

Now from that statement you might conclude that the only way to change your organization’s culture and raise the level of accountability is for the CEO and all the top brass to change and beome more accountable. THat is not what I am saying at all. THe most effective culture change is one that starts with you, what ever your position in the company is. When you make a concious decsion to become more accountable for your actions you raise the bar for everyone around you. When you have become more accountable, it will be eveident to those around you. Then, you have the moral authority, to begin holding those around more accountable for their actions. Not just those that report to you, but your peers and your superiors as well. It does not take a huge corportate initiative, it takes one person determined to make changes, and willing to make those changes themselves, before they try to change others.