“He meets the minimum standard, but he is still doing a lousy job?” I repeat.

“Yes, and the frustrating part is, I can’t explain it to him,” Ruben shook his head. “He always comes back and says he is doing the job exactly as I say. And he is, but he is still doing a lousy job.”

“Let’s look at some really obvious stuff,” I started. “I am going to describe some things that are absolutely required, let’s call them the prescribed parts of the job, some really obvious things.

• Andre has to be at his work station, ready to go at 8:00a each day.
• He has to wear the proper safety equipment.
• He has to follow safety standards around the machines and tools.
• He has to produce the number of units assigned during each week’s production run.

“Well, yes, okay, he does that stuff,” Ruben responded.

“There are some other things, but these are easy to see and you can’t argue with them. If he didn’t show up at 8:00a, and if he didn’t wear his safety equipment, follow procedures and make his production assignments, he couldn’t be on the team?”

“Okay, I’m with you so far.

“So, I am accountable for the output of my team, the results. Please tell me what is in the contract. What is each team member responsible for?” Sheila asked.

“With accountability for results clearly fixed with the manager, here is what we need from each member,” I replied. “Here is the contract:

“Each team member is required

• To do their best.
• To report to their manager ASAP whenever they see that the project will not meet the results outlined by the manager (behind schedule or failing a quality standard), so that appropriate action can be taken by the manager.
• To report to their manager ASAP whenever they see that the project will exceed the results outlined by the manager (ahead of schedule or exceeding a quality standard), so that appropriate action can be taken by the manager.
• To report to their manager whenever circumstances (personal or business) prevent them from doing their best, so that appropriate action can be taken by the manager.

“Sheila, with you, as the manager, assuming accountability for the results of your team and with this contract in place, everything changes.”

“So, I guess I should have stepped in and told them it was okay to be a little behind on the project. I was just being too hard on everyone,” Sheila figured.

“That’s not the problem,” I replied. “It’s not a matter of being too hard or too soft on your team. It is a matter of fixing accountability. It’s a matter of being very clear on who would be accountable for the result.”

“You mean I should tell them the truth, that they would not be held accountable for the result of the project? That doesn’t seem right. If they know that I am the one accountable for the result, I don’t know what would happen,” Sheila pondered.

“Think about it. If your team knew that you, as the manager, were accountable for the result of the project and the project got behind, would they have tried to cover it up?”

“I suppose not. If they knew that I wasn’t going to chew them out, why would they cover it up?” she said.

“Especially, if you make an agreement with them, because you, as the manager, are accountable for the result, you need to know ASAP if any part of the project gets behind schedule. And you are not doing it because you are tight-fisted, but because you are accountable. When you are clear about accountability, communication opens up and people stop trying to cover their ass.”

“As the manager, you agree that you were accountable for the results of the project?” I asked.

“I agree,” Sheila reluctantly replied.

“But the mistakes were made, because the team member thought they were accountable for the results. When the project first got behind, why didn’t they tell you?”

“I guess they thought they could cover it up, catch up with the schedule and that I wouldn’t find out.”

“Because they knew there would be hell to pay?”

Sheila nodded. “Because there would be hell to pay. I guess I did say that.”

“And because there would be hell to pay, the team member thought they should work overtime to fix the mistake. Is that person authorized to make the decision to work overtime?”

“No, and they talked the whole team into working overtime. And they agreed not to write the time down on their timecard. They were really trying to cover up. HR blew a gasket when someone complained they had to work overtime and weren’t allowed to put it on their timesheet.”

“And why did all this happen?” I pressed.

“Because the team thought they were accountable for the result and there would be hell to pay.”

“So, you told the team something that wasn’t true. You mislead them about who would be accountable,” I said.

“It’s not that big of a deal,” Sheila protested. “The problem with the project was just a breakdown in communication.”

“Sheila, I want you to look carefully at a couple of things here,” I replied.

• The project got behind and no one reported it.
• A team member made a decision to work overtime that was not authorized.
• A team member made a decision to use materials that were reserved for the next shift.

And you can’t tell me why those things happened.”

“It was just an honest mistake. I don’t think they really meant any harm,” Sheila defended.

“So, who should I hold accountable for the project coming in late and over budget?” I asked.

“Well, it was their fault.”

“No,” I shook my head. “All crumbs lead to the manager.”

“But that’s me,” Sheila puzzled.

“They knew they were behind, but didn’t speak up,” Sheila began to think out loud, assembling the events in her mind. “They worked overtime, used up materials intended for the next day. Put us further behind. And still didn’t speak up.”

Again, I asked, “Why didn’t they tell you. After all, you are the manager. And, as the manager, you were accountable for the results of the team.” I stopped. I stopped to see if Sheila noticed that I changed her story. She noticed.

“I know, I know,” she replied. “And you’re right. I told them that they would be held accountable for the results, but in the end, I’m the one in the hot seat. Believe me, my manager was pissed.”

“Let me get this straight,” I said. “You told the team that they would be held accountable for the results of the project, when you knew the accountability for results ends up with you.”

“Well, you know. I always say that. I want the team to take ownership. Every manager I know, says that.”

“The harder we worked, the behinder we got,” I smiled.

Sheila politely laughed, but I could tell she didn’t see the humor. “You would think, as soon as it looked like we might miss a milestone, someone would speak up.”

“Why do you think your team was silent? Were they aware the project was getting behind?” I asked.

Sheila nodded. “I talked to them and got a funny response. Everyone knew the project was behind. One person said they got nervous when they inspected some of the production and found it was defective. They knew there would be hell to pay, so they worked overtime, doing rework, used up the raw material that was reserved for the next day. You can see where this was going. The next day, the whole crew stood around, not able to work and we were further behind.”

“And they didn’t tell you what was going on?”

“No, not right away.”

“Why didn’t they tell you?” I pressed.

Sheila looked to the side, then to the ceiling. “I don’t know.”

“But we had the meeting,” Sheila complained. “I delegated the tasks, each, to the most appropriate team member. I spent a lot of time trying to build consensus for the direction we were heading with the project. I ended the meeting very firm, that the team would be held accountable for the results.”

“And what happened?” I asked.

“Everyone was very clear about their part. Lots of things had to be coordinated. I was looking for some high levels of cooperation,” she replied.

“And?”

“A couple of things got behind, and I didn’t find out about them. One part of the team was waiting on some things and couldn’t move forward until some other parts were finished. At first it didn’t seem like such a big deal, but it’s that snowball effect. The longer the project went on, the harder everyone worked, the more we got behind.”

From the Ask Tom mailbag:

Follow-up:
Thanks, I appreciate your validation on the accountability for goals. The corrective measures I indicated include coaching sessions with the manager and a redistribution of tasks in order to accomplish those daily and weekly goals. Your recent blog on control measures hit home with this particular situation as well. The measures were set up to catch mistakes instead of preventing mistakes.

Response:
This shift in “who is accountable for the goal?” is huge and immediately changes the way the manager relates to the team. While the team may be doing the production work, it is the supervisor or manager who allocates resources, schedules resources, sets priorities, authorizes overtime, pulls a team member from one project to another.

The most important decisions for the manager are:

• The Time Span estimate for the task to be assigned and
• The volume of workload (number of tasks) assigned to an individual team member.

Yet, the accountability for the goal (completion) remains with the manager.