Accountability is difficult.

Some managers want to avoid a confrontation. Others struggle with timing in a fast-paced environment. For a few managers, accountability discussions feel like the first step towards inevitably losing an employee.

Have you tried replacing someone right now? It's hard.

A LinkedIn post asked managers to share what they find most difficult about holding customer service employees accountable. It was a fascinating discussion.

One thing the discussion revealed was that many managers start thinking about accountability way too late. Here's a proven process that starts much sooner, and is more comfortable for both managers and employees.

What is employee accountability?

Accountability is not exclusively for underperforming employees, and it's not primarily about employee discipline. Holding an employee accountable means making them responsible for their work.

Here's how the Merriam-Webster dictionary defines accountability:

an obligation or willingness to accept responsibility or to account for one's actions

Using this definition, accountability goes hand-in-hand with what good employees want. They want to be entrusted with responsibility and given the opportunity to take ownership of their work.

What are the four steps to accountability?

There are four major steps to holding employees accountable for their work. Following these steps carefully can help avoid many of the uncomfortable aspects of accountability, such as issuing formal warnings.

Step 1: Set expectations

Employees need to understand exactly what you want them to do if they are going to take responsibility for their actions.

Check your ability to set clear expectations by answering three questions:

1. Are your expectations clearly defined?

2. Do employees fully understand the expectations?

3. Do employees agree to the expectations?

It's not enough to tell employees to do something. Two-way communication with your team is required to know if employees understand and agree to fulfill expectations.

Step 2: Train and coach

Helping employees perform their jobs well is one of your primary responsibilities as a manager. Training, feedback, and coaching is often required to help employees develop the skills to do their job. They also need the tools, equipment, resources, and best practices necessary to do good work.

Step 3: Improve performance

There are times when employees will struggle to get the job done, meet quality standards, or otherwise do great work. It's important to get to the root cause of these performance problems so they can be solved.

Poor performance is often unintentional. In many cases, employees want to do good work, but something is getting in the way. A collaborative discussion with an underperforming employee can often reveal an unseen opportunity to quickly improve.

You can use my quick fix checklist to guide these discussions.

If you have access to LinkedIn Learning, you can view an entire course on solving common performance problems that plague customer service employees.

Step 4: Create consequences

Managers who use steps 1-3 to hold employees accountable will rarely need to resort to written warnings, performance improvement plans, or even firing employees.

However, there are times when managers must create consequences for poor performance or bad behavior. Here are three examples:

Lack of ability. Some employees can't do the job. Perhaps it was a hiring mistake or there's some other reason they simply aren't able to do good work. Try to move these employees to a role that better suits their talents if you can. Otherwise, you'll have to let them go.

Lack of responsibility. A few employees don't want to do the job. These employees will sometimes improve if they understand there are real consequences to repeated poor performance.

Toxic behavior. This includes harassment, fraud, or other egregious violations of company policy. I recommend firing those employees before they infect others.

How do you create a culture of accountability?

Accountability starts at the top. As a manager, it's up to you to set the tone and be a role model for your team.

Make sure employees understand their responsibilities and are able to do their jobs effectively. Observe employee performance and have frequent check-ins so employees know you are there to support them.

Don't let issues slide, especially big ones. Your approach doesn't have to be mean—you can usually get better results by working with employees to solve problems. But it should be crystal clear that poor performance won't be ignored.

Accountability becomes contagious once it's a habit.

Employees on high-performing teams encourage each other, support each other, and help each other do better. Many are surprisingly willing to resolve problems amongst themselves, which ultimately makes your job easier.

Conclusion

Holding your employees accountable means helping them do great work. You can help them achieve their full potential, and do great work beyond what even they felt possible.