Are You Holding Employees Accountable?

When we talk with managers about their top concerns, we hear one concern over and over: How do I hold my people accountable?

These managers don't want to be—dun dun dun—a micromanager, but they also know they need to make sure the right things are getting done.

One of the best tools for accountability is the weekly 1-on-1. Make sure you have them scheduled, and stick to them religiously.

But more important than just holding 1-on-1s is ensuring there is a throughline from week to week. To ensure accountability, the two most important things to follow up on week to week are:

• The employee's quarterly goals. Ask: Is each goal still looking likely to be accomplished on time? Any roadblocks? What do you need from me?
• Action items from the previous 1-on-1. Tasks will always come up outside the goals, which should be written down in the 1-on-1 and followed up on explicitly in the next one. You don't have to be the taskmaster ("So, did you get this done or what?"), but you should run through them with the employee, offering support and reprioritizing as needed.

Those two simple actions go a really long way toward keeping the employee accountable—without playing the part of the micromanager.

How Manager360 makes 1-on-1s easier

Follow-through in 1-on-1s is so important that we made it a capability in Manager360 for Microsoft Teams.

In the app, you can auto-generate agendas for all your 1-on-1s to ensure that key items are being covered consistently. Manager360 will automatically pull in existing data to create a suggested agenda that you can then easily amend and add to.

The agenda includes:

• The employee’s goals for the quarter
• Action Items from previous 1-on-1s
• Recent Wins and Kudos received by the employee
• Discussion Topics you would like to cover
• Connection Questions — choose from our library of 50+ power questions for 1-on-1s

The result? A fast but comprehensive agenda that keeps you and your employees on the same page and moving forward.