Is Your Team Accountable
By VICKY BROWN
You know, I talk a lot about accountability. Team members have to have accountability, you as a leader have to model accountability – it’s all about accountability. But how can you actually foster a culture of accountability in your company?
Well I have 4 excellent tips to help you wrap your arms around getting and keeping a culture of accountability.
First up is quality control. OK, I know – you’re so busy selling and making sure the lights stay on that QC, or quality control is probably the last thing on your mind. You just want to fill the order or assignment. But think about it, if it’s not done right, consistently, then you’re going to have a huge problem.
And I’m sorry to say, but it’s not enough that you have solid training in place, and you hire the best, and you tell everyone to be careful, and you have Standard Operating Procedures for everything. Without some sort of check, you’re really running in the dark.
Without quality control, you don’t really have any idea if you are providing consistent value – that is until one (or more) of your clients hits you with a complaint. And you’re left thinking…I had now idea, I can’t believe that was the way Sally was handling her work, we trained her so well, and we have SOPs for everything.
Well, first of all – and SOP is great, but only if it’s used….every time. And you know how it is – we get busy, we’ve done it million times before, we don’t need the checklist, we know all this stuff by heart.
Well, tell it to a pilot. They use a checklist every time. No matter how many times they fly that plane, they use a checklist religiously each time. But I digress – don’t get me to talking about SOPs and checklists.
Back to the point, you don’t’ want to wait until a client complains. You have to have some method of spot checking. And it needs to be done on a regular basis. Because without that – you won’t really have any confidence in what is going out the door to your clients.
“… Without quality control, you don’t really have any idea if you are providing consistent value”
And no, it’s not a matter of ‘catching’ someone, it’s about continuously looking after the quality of your product or service. It’s in the name – quality control.
The next tip is feedback. I mentioned earlier that you don’t want to wait until a client complains. But you should actually go farther. You should seek out feedback from your client on how they are feeling about working with you and your company.
The best method I’ve found is the Net Promoter Score. If you haven’t heard of the Net Promoter Score, it’s a single survey question that asks people to rate the likelihood they’ll recommend a company, product or service to a friend or colleague. I’m sure you’ve definitely seen an NPS in action – in fact, I’ll bet you’ve probably been asked to complete one at one time or another.
When you look at your NPS, one of the things to focus on is where can you improve. What do you need to do to move the needle, and improve your NPS for the next year. So make sure your annual company goals always include taking action to improve your net promoter score – because really, client satisfaction is everything. Sure you can drum up more sales and bring in more clients, but if you don’t keep them – well, that’s the whole ballgame.
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Along the same lines is making sure you have metrics so you can measure output, and spot trends – up or down. Metrics and Key Performance Indicators help you see, in a glance, how the company is doing. So don’t skimp here – sit down, and take some quality time to figure out the best things to measure in your business, and then – keep track.
And last but certainly not least – the absolute best way to develop a culture of accountability is – well you guessed it – it’s that you have to set the standard.
There’s no way around it, everything flows from you – the leader. When you set the standard, everyone around you will model it. If you show up as someone who is accountable and takes responsibility for their actions, your team will do the same.
Sometimes it’s not easy, but how you show up each day, is you telling your team how to show up. What you expect from them. What’s OK and what isn’t. So when you think about something that you want, that you may feel is missing from your team – do a little self audit. A subtle shift in your thinking an approach might work wonders.