Getting employees to take responsibility

Dear Bob …

I started in a new position 6 months ago. From my experience so far, I have concluded that the people in the whole organization either don’t want or don’t know how to be managed. (I hope it’s not me, but then again, if I was that sure, I’d tell them to write to you, and I’m writing myself…)

I believe in Drucker: (Organize – Prioritize – Motivate – Measure – Train) and I feel that I’ve fought to get people to acknowledge my organization and prioritization of the issues to align them with the department and corporate goals. I do my best to recognize when we achieve success, but my measurements show that very little is progress is being made.

It appears that the culture here has never been to take responsibility for delivering on one’s goals, which has resulted in a culture of “We can’t do that because…” and people who won’t do anything without a committee and consensus first. Progress doesn’t really exist! The staff aren’t belligerent or lazy (except that they’ve been cultivated to not be accountable), they’re just more used to giving their opinions than actually taking responsibility for things.

I guess my predecessor wasn’t good at delegating, and liked having everyone’s buy-in on everything.

I believe that I’m on the right track, (but a wholly part-time staff makes is difficult) and I guess I’m just looking to hear if you agree with me, or if I’m drastically off base with my approach. Or, of course, to advise me as to how I can get my team to be accountable?

– Frustigimated

Dear Frustigimated …

Without a better understanding of the personalities involved it’s a bit difficult to give you specific advice. In particular, I need to be sure I understand what you mean by “take responsibility.” It’s a term that’s been abused enough that it’s worth confirming.

To that end: The useful meaning is asking every employee who receives an assignment to take personal charge of it, and to accept that part of accepting the assignment is to figure out how to overcome the inevitable difficulties that always turn up in the course of turning an idea into reality.

The not-very-useful meaning is telling every employee to “do whatever it takes” to get the job done. This version isn’t useful because “do whatever it takes” includes doing damage to the entire company.

Now to work.

Step one is that Drucker’s step one is really step two. Or maybe three. First, you have to establish the overall direction – your vision and strategy, to use two more seriously abused words. You need to create buy-in regarding the big picture.

I strongly encourage a high-involvement process for this, for the simple reason that if it’s your vision, everyone else is simply processing work orders. If you want their hearts and minds engaged, it has to be everyone’s vision and strategy, not just yours.

Even with this, the big challenge is changing the habit of lamentation, which I gather is the norm for your organization. Faced with a barrier, assignees reverse-delegate the process of getting past it to you.

You won’t change the habit in a day. You can change the outcome in a day, which over time will change the habit. All you have to do here is, every time someone reports that they’re blocked, ask, “What do you think you should do?” If the answer is, “I don’t know,” don’t give up, and don’t solve the problem.

Make your expectation clear – that you’re paying each employee to be smart enough to figure these things out. Give the employee a day to figure out three ways to solve the problem. Don’t lose patience.

Very important: Publicly praise each and every instance in which an employee does face a barrier and figures out a solution – this reinforces the behavior you’re looking for.

Also very important: Don’t refuse legitimate reverse-delegations. There will be times when the barrier is one of your peers, or your boss, and you need to intervene personally.

And … although I assume you do this as a matter of habit … make it clear whether you’re delegating a task or a goal; whether you’ve delegated responsibility for recommending or for doing; and of course delegating authority in proportion to the responsibility you’ve delegated.

You’re in the realm of culture change – a high-leverage leadership technique, but one that doesn’t happen quickly. It’s going to take patience as you slowly build up momentum. You can get it done, though, and succeeding at this is one of the most rewarding achievements I know of.

– Bob

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