<a href="https://hbr.org/2016/01/the-right-way-to-hold-people-accountable" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Go direct to the referenced HBR Tip here</a>

How often do you see (or experience) missed task/project/goal expectations within your team?

It might go like this...

<span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>(email message)</strong></span><strong> <em>"</em></strong><em>Hey Matt, set up a meeting for the team, let's brief the team on the new reporting format you designed."</em>

Matt sets up the meeting. Outlook invite blast sent.  <strong>QUESTION: Is Matt completely clear on what the meeting expectations are?</strong>

<span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>(meeting day)</strong></span><strong> </strong>Matt's meeting is missing a few key people (the boss, the boss's boss, both included in the Outlook invite blast). He calls them... they attend via. speakerphone (weird start, but Matt continues).  He reviews the new reporting format, which involves some technology changes. Some attendees can follow. Some can't. In the end (after a few weeks of one-on-one training between Matt and meeting attendees), everyone is in compliance.

<span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>(mid-year review)</strong></span> Matt's boss beats him down on how the "new report format" project and meeting went. <em>"You didn't have the key players there, in person. You didn't make the technology aspect clear. You took 30 days beyond the meeting to ensure everyone was in compliance."</em>

Remember that original email from Matt's boss?  <em>"Hey Matt, set up a meeting for the team, let's brief the team on the new reporting format you designed."</em>

Sure sounds like the mid-year review task description should have replaced the near-useless original email. But, it didn't... and now <strong>Matt</strong><strong> gets flack because his boss didn't understand how to hold his team accountable.</strong> A real "WTF" moment.

Who screwed up?  Matt or his boss? Has this happened to you?

HBR wrote a GREAT article on <a href="http://leadserveprofit.com/tools/5-steps-for-team-accountability-hbr-tip/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">preventing costly mis-communications</a> like the one above and achieving team accountability in 5 steps... simple things that anyone without a degree, MBA, or fancy title can accomplish to achieve on-target performance outcomes from the troops.

Get the 5 steps here in five minutes!

<a href="https://hbr.org/2016/01/the-right-way-to-hold-people-accountable" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Right Way to Hold People Accountable HBR Tip</a>

&nbsp;