Many companies come to us because they can’t get their people to think for themselves or take ownership for results. We hear this a lot:

“I’ve told them a hundred times they need to… What is wrong with them – do they not get it?”

This is justifiably frustrating. Frustration grows into resentment, creating a rift between leaders and their teams. The teams, in turn, begin to resent their managers: “I can’t do anything right. My manager doesn’t believe in me.”

Sinking confidence levels and increasing frustration undermine performance, growing the original issue.

WHY THIS IS HAPPENING:

Leaders’ go-to explanation is: people are lazy, simple-minded, or not leadership-material. These may be right, but they leave the leader with nothing to do but tolerate the subpar behavior or replace the underperformers.

Rather than blame these behaviors on unchangeable characteristics, let’s look to behavioral science to explain what is happening.

People are designed to conserve resources. We do this subconsciously, taking the path of least resistance – by default. If your people aren’t doing what you ask, it’s probably because not doing it is easier than doing it. Your occasional criticism isn’t enough to get them to do cognitively challenging work that feels difficult to them.

Choosing the path of least resistance is not necessarily laziness. It can be effective prioritization in a world where most of us don’t get everything done on our lists. Skipping tasks that they believe no one will ask about or that you will swoop in and do yourself without all the discomfort of a rigorous back-and-forth editing process is rational.

Over time, cognitive dependency and just doing what’s asked vs. taking ownership become habits. Breaking habits is hard. Most can’t start new habits overnight.

You can either accept these failures as somewhat rational behavior and change the incentives – or create a counterculture that instills the value of doing hard things. Running towards a challenge is character-driven leadership, which can lead to a character-driven culture. We’ll talk more about this in the future.

BEYOND BLAMING:

It’s natural to blame your people for their poor performance, even if you accept that they may be acting rationally - but it’s not helpful.

As former Navy SEAL, Jocko Willink, says in Extreme Ownership:

“If mistakes happen, effective leaders don’t place blame on others. They take ownership of the mistakes, determine what went wrong, develop solutions to correct those mistakes and prevent them from happening again as they move forward.”

Great leaders take ownership for solving the problem because it’s what leaders do – and they recognize they bear some responsibility for their people’s failures.

Former Green Beret Officer, Jason Van Camp, explains why the leader is also at fault in Deliberate Discomfort:

“You are the enforcer of standards. If you let the standards slip, you’ll find that that becomes the new standard.”

It’s time to reboot your team’s or company’s standards.

THE FIX:

There are 4 steps you can take to turn your dependent team into strong critical thinkers and leaders:

Communicate clear expectations

You think you’ve told them 100 times, but that doesn’t mean they know what exemplary behaviors look like. For example, a leader in a state government division was frustrated his people weren’t providing robust recommendations. I asked him: “Have you told them what a good recommendation looks like?” He hadn’t. He assumed that they could figure it out based on his criticism of their subpar recommendations.

We decided to fix this. He created a list of qualities of a good recommendation and asked the team to do the same. The difference between the 2 lists was dramatic, proving the team didn’t have clear expectations. He’s now working with the team to consolidate their lists into 1 clear set of expectations.

Create a consistent cadence of accountability

Inconsistent or nonexistent accountability is how we let the standards slip. It’s late, you’re in a rush, or you’re tired of correcting that team member, so you let it go or fix it yourself without saying anything. You just extended the lifespan of that behavior.

Just-in-time accountability is important. If you see something, say something. At the same time, it’s insufficient.

You don’t want to wait for the counterproductive behavior to occur to hold your team accountable. Instead, consistently check-in - through a meeting or asynchronous communication – on the actions you want to see. Knowing you’re checking holds the team to be accountable.

For example, business development staff at a company I was working with weren’t staying on top of communications with leads, causing them to lose business. Their project managers weren’t reviewing and updating their project schedules regularly either. After clarifying communication norms and project schedule practices, we set up 2 short weekly meetings to run through the sales pipeline and project schedules. We tracked follow-up business development tasks in our CRM system and set up the system to notify us when tasks are due.  

Tighten the feedback loop

If you’ve done these first 2 steps and haven’t seen improvement, it’s time to shrink the amount of work they can do without checking in with you. To do this, change the frequency of check-ins or the amount of work they must do before reporting back to you.

If you’ve been checking in once a week, check in twice. If they start projects without aligning on a project plan, start making them share a written plan before they can start. Have them include more key decision points in their project plan so you can schedule check-ins at those milestones.

For example, I asked the team mentioned above to include me in all business development emails so I could see if they were responding promptly. This won’t last forever – only until they are consistently responsive.

Tightening the feedback loop gives them less time to get off track, allowing you to redirect them faster. Over time, this shapes in them the behavior you want to see.

Problem-solve collaboratively

If you have tried the previous 3 points and still have not seen results, it’s time to figure out with them why they aren’t performing as desired. Up until this point, you let them figure out how to deliver the performance and then held them accountable.

Now it’s time to tell them the problem has continued and to ask them what would help them perform at or above expectations. Make a list of what they can do differently, what you or others can do to help, and what environmental or technological changes could help – and try some out.

When client communication continued to be spotty in the example shared previously, I scheduled a meeting with those dropping the ball and those who were upset at the ball dropping. We discussed how they currently manage communications and what could help. Then we made some changes to team practices, enlisting those who were upset to help them.

Some people won’t like this intrusion into how they do their work – and that’s fine. You don’t want to do this either. Their failure to meet expectations has required it, but once they demonstrate it’s not necessary, they will regain their freedom.

EXECUTION IS EVERYTHING:

As venture capitalist and investor, John Doerr, famously said, “Ideas are easy. Execution is everything.” You can have the best product, plan, and brand – but if you can’t get your people to perform with excellence, think critically, and take ownership, you’ll fall short.

Execution is everything. Accountability enables execution. And accountability requires consistency.

Think about the problem behavior(s) or unfulfilled request(s) you experience.

1. Have you communicated clear expectations?
2. Do you give just-in-time accountability consistently?
3. Do you have a standing cadence of accountability via a meeting or email? Have you stuck with it?
4. Have you shortened the time between check-ins?

If you answered “no” to any of the above questions, there is a good chance the 4 steps above will help you. You’ll be surprised what your people are capable of when you hold them to a higher standard week after week.

Need help developing a system that will work for your company or coaching on implementing this? Let us know.