If you are like most people I know, you are let’s say… timid about holding direct reports accountable. Hopefully, this article (the first in a series) will help you learn how to deal with these situations in a very positive manner.
Fear of dealing with conflict was the main reason I stayed out of management for years. I knew that I did not have the skills to deal with these situations. Then I learned to simply ask “why?”
Here’s how it works. Let’s say one of your folks messed up in some way. Your job as their leader is to find out what happened, why it happened and how to prevent it from happening in the future. Getting to the bottom of this requires asking a lot of questions.
Let’s say “Bob” failed to follow a procedure. You meet with Bob privately so as not to embarrass him, and you begin to ask him questions.
- Bob, tell me about this, what happened?
- Did you follow procedure?
- Are you familiar with the procedure?
- Do you know where to find it?
- Is there some reason you decided the procedure does not apply to this situation?
- What can I do or could have done to prevent this from happening?
This is extremely powerful stuff. It serves a few purposes.
- There is no conflict here. You just keep asking questions, and Bob has to think about them and answer them.
- Bob is completely invested in this process because he is thinking about the situation and why he made the choices he made. He owns the answers, they are HIS, not yours. You are not telling him what he should have done (unless he honestly has no idea).
- Did you notice the last question? Yes, ask what you can do to prevent repeats of the event. YOU do have a responsibility in this situation. We will look at this point more closely in the next installment.
You’ll continue to be nervous the first few times you try this, but after a few times you will find that there is no stress at all. You and Bob are learning how this happened and how to prevent it from happening in the future. What is stressful about that? You’re working with Bob to improve your processes and in the end you, Bob and your company benefit and you will all learn something.
Is this a skill that you currently use or think you could use in your job?
Related Link: The Power of Asking Why (Part II)
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This is something I’ve always struggled with too but I’ve found that “hoping” things will improve with direct reports actually leads to things getting worse. They never seem to even stay the same.
I’m looking forward to reading part 2!
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