Holding people accountable is the most mature thing you can do.

It requires you to have an adult conversation.

The reason it feels hard when it comes to your team is:

1. You worry they might quit.
2. You don’t want to hurt their feelings.
3. You think it’s your fault they didn’t perform.

There’s one way to remove all these excuses.

Create a clear agreement in advance.

This simply means you communicate the result you want with a due date, they repeat it back to you and agree, and you evaluate the results together when you say you will.

Evaluating results does not mean you call into question their worth as a human.

You’re just looking at whether the agreed-upon result was created.

There doesn’t need to be any drama.

1. If someone quits because you’re evaluating results together, then they’re not a good fit for your business anyway.

2. Evaluating results has nothing to do with hurting feelings. It has to do with identifying if the outcome was achieved. You’re not criticizing the person or their ability.

3. It’s not your fault if they don’t perform as long as you create clear agreements in advance. Their performance is their responsibility.

The people who work for you want to succeed.

But the older, more primitive part of their human brain (and yours) is focused on 3 things: avoid pain, seek pleasure and conserve energy.

It would rather not do things that are risky, require effort and might cause pain.

This is the reason sometimes the people who work for us miss the mark.

It’s also the reason we fail to hold them accountable.

Overcome this default behavior of the primitive part of the brain.

You’ll get the best out of people when they’re clear on the outcome and when they know you’ll evaluate their results.

Be brave. Be courageous. Hold the people on your team accountable.