SmartPulse — our weekly nonscientific reader poll in SmartBrief on Leadership — tracks feedback from more than 190,000 business leaders. We run the poll question each week in our e-newsletter.
Last week, we asked: How well do you hold your people accountable for their actions?
- Very well: 21.31%
- Well: 55.85%
- Not well: 19.92%
- Poorly: 2.95%
Letting things slide is poisonous. While the vast majority of you say you do a solid job of holding folks accountable for actions and performance, the large portion of you who don’t are in a lot of danger. When people get away with not meeting expectations, not only do you not get the performance you need, you create a toxic culture, and while toxic cultures can be fixed, it takes work. When folks know they can get away with not delivering, they’ll do it again. On top of that, their colleagues will see and possibly mimic their behaviors. Set a standard and hold people to it. It’s a much easier fix than resolving the poisonous culture that can result.
Mike Figliuolo is managing director of thoughtLEADERS and author of “One Piece of Paper: The Simple Approach to Powerful, Personal Leadership.”