In a leadership role, it is imperative to coach, educate and check for understanding.  Far too often, I have witnessed many leadership professionals assume their team knows what it is they should be focusing on.  When these leadership professionals witness something not going right, they immediately tell their team what was wrong and what they should have done differently.  Sometimes this feels, good.  Sometimes it makes you feel as if you made an impact today by fixing “x.”

Has you ever fell victim to this common trap?  If so, I am also guessing that you have spent many days repeating yourself over and over, while your team gives you a blank stare in return, mumbling the words “ok, I will fix it.”  However, what you begin to witness is that you are continually telling your team the same thing over and over, leading to frustration and annoyance from both you and your employees.

Typically in this type of scenario, there are a couple of items that may be going wrong for you.

• First of all, your team may not truly understand what is expected of them.
• Secondly, your team may be just yessing you, as you are failing to hold them accountable.

Validating understanding and holding your team accountable, in essence require the same beginning steps.  How would you ensure that your team understands what is expected of them and the importance of what you are trying to communicate?  How would you validate whether or not they are on the same page?  As I am sure you guessed it, the answer would be to ask them questions.

Teach vs Preach

Asking questions conquers the clarity of a knowledge gap and also begins to hold your team accountable.  Accountability is not putting others down, yelling, informing of consequences or reprimanding employees.  The definition of accountability is to “justify / speak to actions & results, account for activities.”  With this in mind, instead of telling people what to do, begin to ask your team questions similar to below.

• What should you be focused on right know?
• What is the process that you and your team should be following?
• Why are these processes important?
• If you understand what the process is and the importance of it, why are you choosing to not follow it?
• What will you do moving forward to ensure this behavior is not repeated and we are following the systems?
• How will you make sure this happens?
• What support do you need from me?
• When will you commit to 100% execution?

Knowledge Gap or Compliance Issue?

The answers to these questions will validate whether or not there is a knowledge gap.  If so, you will know very quickly.  That is the time to coach and educate accordingly.  If there is not a knowledge gap, the questions force your employee to speak to actions and account for activities, thus holding them accountable.  If you are in the beginning phases of accountability as mentioned above, you will notice your employee become uncomfortable while answering.

When asking these questions and dealing with accountability, you are being respectful, non threating and ensuring your team is calibrated with the importance of what you are focusing on.  This will lead to improved performance and less times you will have to “tell” anyone what to do.  Telling people over and over only leads to you continually telling them over and over.  Do your team and yourself a favor, educate, teach, check for understanding and hold your team accountable.

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