Why Accountability Matters
Recently, I had a great discussion with one of my longtime friends about how often a manager should “stick their nose” in to their teams business…especially their top producers. His perspective on the matter was that by meeting w/ them often & regularly to discuss activity goals & metrics, it may be construed “micromanagement”. He believed that what any good manager should do is just “get out of their way”. While I agree that “micromanagement” is a poisonous activity for any profession, I can tell you from experience that “getting out their way” may make them happy but it isn’t in the their best interest. Giving your people what they need vs. what they want is the sign of a great leader/manager.
One of the most dangerous mistakes any person can make is to go without accountability. Even short periods of time w/out it can end up causing major problems in producing results later. As much as any person may want to resist activity goals & metrics or as much as a manager may not want to measure/enforce activity goals, it is necessary that you do so—even when that individual is making their numbers.
The best example I can relate this to, is imagine a professional athlete at the absolute top of his/her game. Now imagine that instead of maintaining their strict diet/fitness/practice/mental conditioning regime, they buy in to their own hype, stop listening to their coaches & start taking time off. They start to spend time at bars w/ friends & on the couch watching TV when they should be preparing. As an ex-athlete I know firsthand that people do not suffer from those decisions right away but, at some point, in the very near future, their results will diminish.
The business world isn’t very different than the sports world, is it? Without prospecting for even relatively short periods of time, your pipeline starts to look a little light. Without face to face interactions with your prospects & customers, your deals start to stammer & your pipeline starts to look even weaker. Before you know it…you miss your number for the quarter. This was never your intention; it just sort of slipped away.
Momentum in business requires that you keep some standard. Your activity goals & metrics are an indication of your future results. Like in our scenario, your activity metrics are a snapshot of your fitness level as a professional. W/out activity goals & metrics, it easy to underperform & miss your numbers…no matter if you are an entry level professional or a “top performer”.
I have known many managers to be unforgiving when it comes to activity metrics & goals. Activity isn’t everything, in-fact, a push for activity-at- all-costs turns many of their team members in to creative writers. They start to get reports turned in that are typically full of lies & activity with prospects that should have easily been disqualified. There is a balance required here & it is our job as leaders/managers to find it.
Help everyone on your team to map out a model week. Everyone’s week isn’t going to look exactly same, everyone’s isn’t always going to play out exactly like the model week, & in some instances their weeks are going to look very different based on the demands of the business. The model is simply something to aspire to, an ideal. A single week of poor activity isn’t likely to make or break your sales results. Some weeks are going to be more productive than others, it just works that way. A single week of poor activity ISN’T likely to break your future sales results but a single month of poor activity IS likely to do quite extensive damage and a quarter of poor activity is likely to spell doom.
To my friend & anyone else reading this…this is my case for activity goals & metrics. As the case for sports, or any profession for that matter, it is very difficult to make up for lost time. Activity goals & metrics, or accountability, are what keep you deliberately moving upward and onward
One of the most dangerous mistakes any person can make is to go without accountability. Even short periods of time w/out it can end up causing major problems in producing results later. As much as any person may want to resist activity goals & metrics or as much as a manager may not want to measure/enforce activity goals, it is necessary that you do so—even when that individual is making their numbers.
The best example I can relate this to, is imagine a professional athlete at the absolute top of his/her game. Now imagine that instead of maintaining their strict diet/fitness/practice/mental conditioning regime, they buy in to their own hype, stop listening to their coaches & start taking time off. They start to spend time at bars w/ friends & on the couch watching TV when they should be preparing. As an ex-athlete I know firsthand that people do not suffer from those decisions right away but, at some point, in the very near future, their results will diminish.
The business world isn’t very different than the sports world, is it? Without prospecting for even relatively short periods of time, your pipeline starts to look a little light. Without face to face interactions with your prospects & customers, your deals start to stammer & your pipeline starts to look even weaker. Before you know it…you miss your number for the quarter. This was never your intention; it just sort of slipped away.
Momentum in business requires that you keep some standard. Your activity goals & metrics are an indication of your future results. Like in our scenario, your activity metrics are a snapshot of your fitness level as a professional. W/out activity goals & metrics, it easy to underperform & miss your numbers…no matter if you are an entry level professional or a “top performer”.
I have known many managers to be unforgiving when it comes to activity metrics & goals. Activity isn’t everything, in-fact, a push for activity-at- all-costs turns many of their team members in to creative writers. They start to get reports turned in that are typically full of lies & activity with prospects that should have easily been disqualified. There is a balance required here & it is our job as leaders/managers to find it.
Help everyone on your team to map out a model week. Everyone’s week isn’t going to look exactly same, everyone’s isn’t always going to play out exactly like the model week, & in some instances their weeks are going to look very different based on the demands of the business. The model is simply something to aspire to, an ideal. A single week of poor activity isn’t likely to make or break your sales results. Some weeks are going to be more productive than others, it just works that way. A single week of poor activity ISN’T likely to break your future sales results but a single month of poor activity IS likely to do quite extensive damage and a quarter of poor activity is likely to spell doom.
To my friend & anyone else reading this…this is my case for activity goals & metrics. As the case for sports, or any profession for that matter, it is very difficult to make up for lost time. Activity goals & metrics, or accountability, are what keep you deliberately moving upward and onward
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