Just landed in Newark, up here for three days, working with Dick Shorten’s Vistage groups on the research of Elliott Jaques.
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“I hope that worked,” Gail blurted.
“How so?” I asked.
“I know I am supposed to hold my team accountable,” she replied. “Sometimes, I feel like a babysitter.”
“If you didn’t feel like a babysitter, what would be different?” I pushed.
“If I don’t come down hard, let my team know I really mean business, it seems like they consistently underperform. But if I am in their face, they actually step up and get the job done.”
“How much of your energy does that take?”
“It’s not just energy,” Gail lamented, “Is this what management is all about, because it’s not really that much fun.”
“So, what would be different, if you could find a better way?”
“I don’t know. Instead of me, is there any way they could hold themselves accountable?”
In a team work, “everyone” is accountable. Accountability comes with trust; and trust requires communication.
Gail needs to gain the team trust – to a level – that everyone in the team “owns” the project, and the ability for anyone in the team to “question” anyone’s performance or action/decision.
Rightnow, the “babysitting” is because… no one trusts no one.