Set Expectations or Frequent Progress Checks

Set Expectations for Frequent Progress Checks

Practitioners: tactical, integrative, and strategic

As soon as I read this OpEx TopEx this morning, I recalled a consistent conversation from a client visit last week. Among the many terms that included in those coaching conversations were accountability and responsibility. When we set expectations for frequent progress checks, we risk creating several common problems.

Let’s start with a couple of operational definitions. According to the dictionary, accountability means the obligation to report, and nothing more. To be held to account is to reach an agreement to discuss what is happening. The dictionary also tells us that to be responsible is something different. To be responsible is to be able to discharge obligations or pay debts. You owe something to which you have obligated yourself.

We may give an account for something for which we are responsible. We may give an account for something for which we are not. How do we know what it is for which we are responsible? That is born from an agreement. How often are our agreements implicit or unclear? There should never be any fear associated with accountability or responsibility. Fear surfaces in these situations when I am unsure if I am being considered responsible.

Set Expectations for Frequent Progress Checks

The agreement to account for something can be easily established. For example, “We are going to discuss the performance of the process every Wednesday morning.” When performance is not to expectations, we might fear we will be held responsible. Have we agreed to a specific outcome? As a leader, I learned to pursue great precision when setting performance outcomes and responsibility. Ultimately, however, I held on to responsibility by sharing it with my teams. Accountability invited my teams to discuss what they were experiencing. Responsibility invited them to offer changes to improve performance. We made decisions together and checked outcomes frequently.

We made changes frequently, too. Performance improved constantly. One idea that I share often is simple. Frequency is a function of recovery. The more frequently we give an account the easier it is to be responsible for the outcomes and the changes required to achieve them. If you set expectations for frequent progress checks and are careful to maintain your own responsibility, your teams might start to show up a little differently.