Have you ever been let down by your team for not achieving a particular result? You committed to achieve x and fell short, leading to being held accountable for your actions? Have you asked yourself, how did I let this happen, and now you are being micromanaged or had additional workload placed on your shoulders for not performing?
Often times in a leadership role, we tend to trust our team to perform against their objectives blindly. Do not get me wrong here, trust is an imperative element to build a great, cohesive team. However, the element you may have or may be missing is the V word – VERIFY.
You should trust your team to perform against the objectives / commitments that you had agreed upon, however, without verification, you are rolling the dice with your commitments and results. Again, trust is great but too much trust may be damaging.
Trust Your Team BUT Verify!
During the timeframe of objective agreement, you must build in check in’s and validate that your team not only understands the agreement, but also is on track to achieve the expected performance. Your role as a leader is to ensure that your team has the knowledge and roadmap to achieve success. To go blindly without weekly check-ins, recognition and or redirection is a dangerous game to be in.
I am not speaking of micromanagement. Give your team the room needed to get their work done without looking over their shoulder but make sure to validate the path towards success. Typically, too much trust will unintentionally lead to infrequent check ins and an unwanted surprise upon the objectives agreed completion date.
Remember, your role as a leader is to ensure that your team is successful. Verification is not anything more than checking in on progress and ensuring success. If you are reluctant to validate, I am assuming you are often unpleasantly surprised.
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