Sometimes it is not so obvious when a team member is procrastinating, skipping responsibilities, or just pretending to be busy with the only purpose to avoid getting things done. You won’t believe how this type of behavior can affect your team and your business.
Today’s tips and tricks are about responsibility and how to foster it within your team.
Often we have found clients having problems in their companies without an obvious reason. They are not sure what the source of the problems are. Sometimes, the owners have even doubted their own ability to lead when in reality there is a lack of responsibility from their team members.
We often see in Job Ads, how companies are looking for people who take initiative and accountability. But simply stating it in your ad does not guarantee only the responsible candidates will apply.
How do you spot a team member with a low Responsibility level?
– Constantly missing deadlines.
– Avoiding new challenges and projects
– Not achieving targets
– Making excuses about everything
– No taking initiative
– Blaming others in the production line instead of taking ownership
– Avoiding reports and direct communications
– Hiding behind “the most experience tag” without actual results
Some of these constantly come from the lack of motivation, laziness, or fear of failure.
Your job as a Manager/Owner is to spot them and moreover to encourage them to take action and improve. How?
– Start by talking and finding out the problem, issue, or circumstances that are contributing to the situation.
– Make sure that the role and responsibilities are clear and understood by the team member. If an updated role description is needed, make it happen.
– Communicate the goal, objectives, and some ideas on how to reach them. This will help you to re-engage your team and moreover to take ownership of their part.
– Provide context and reason WHY a certain activity needs to be done and if you want them to do it in a specific way provide the tools and guidelines.
– Team meetings, Individual catch-ups, and performance checks are incredibly important to keep the communication open and to track progress.
How to foster Responsibility among your team?
Having a clear vision is very important in every organisation, not just for the owner but for the team! It helps to work collaboratively, improve and at the end of the day expand the company’s activities. Knowing the goal and the paths to get there, works as a natural and organic way to boost your team by taking on more responsibilities.
Some of the things that you need to be aware of when promoting responsibility are to understand that your team is more likely to make mistakes, and require guidance and constant communication. Be present, provide feedback and acknowledge them!
Knowing the personality of every team member will help you to understand how to best manage the team. As you know we all have different personalities and some of them will need completely different solutions and interactions. Have you thought about whether they prefer routines instead of challenges? Or perhaps they get bored and demotivated when there are no new projects?
Having this information will take your team and business to the next level.
If you want to understand more about people and their personalities we can help you in different ways. Let us know your interests here