Three Ways to Build Accountability in Your Team

Effective teams are accountable to each other for completion of their part of projects and for communicating how initiatives stand. Here are three ways to build team accountability.

Be accountable yourself. As a leader, set the example. Commit to your teammates that certain tasks will be done by a particular date, and then follow through.

Communicate regularly. Set up a recurring team meeting (live or virtual) and/or utilize group communication tools online or via email for communicating progress. For example, I work part time for a firm and we have a weekly staff meeting where we give updates on our responsibilities. Knowing I will be giving a report can keep me motivated and help me consolidate my actions into reportable elements.

Allow flexibility...to a degree. When assigning tasks and deadlines, be reasonable and realistic. Some projects are "if we can get to this," as compared to "we must do this." If a deadline comes up and a team member gets sick, be reasonable about extending it. Your team should feel comfortable asking for flexibility from time to time, although this should not become a habit. If it does, you may need to improve on how to set a deadline effectively and build more cushion into the original plan in the first place.

In what ways have you built accountability into your team?

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Five Ways to Help Your Team Develop their Professional Skills in a Tight Economy

In a tight economy, professional development is one of the budget cuts often made. While this is sometimes necessary, pulling back from providing development opportunities can be short sighted. Here are a few ways to keep your team learning while not breaking the bank.

Keep it a priority. Instead of "professional development" being the first thing to be cut, how about looking at other line items such as meal expenses, excess office supplies, or professional services that may be a bit overdone?

Consider local opportunities. There are still businesses out there that provide training classes that may not require your team to travel. Search "professional education" in your area and check out options.

Watch for community programs. Sometimes, recreation departments or places such as the local library offer educational seminars for a very reasonable fee. (For example, my husband and I are leading a financial literacy workshop on a Saturday morning where the registration fee is only $6 for non-residents!)

Search for online courses and webinars. Online options abound and provide flexibility for your team, without the expense of travel.

Bring in a speaker. Many small business people (such as myself!) would jump at the chance to come to your workplace to teach on a particular topic. Don't restrict yourself to the high cost experts. Ask around for good recommendations. You may be surprised at who is a good teacher in your very own town!

Allow a small budget for reading materials or association memberships. Allow all employees, including support staff, to spend $25 a year on a periodical, association membership, or online service that they feel will help them grow personally and professionally. Most companies can afford this small gesture, and it can have a big payoff, particularly if you let your employees pick what they would most be interested in.

Remember soft skills. You don't have to limit your team to industry-specific training. Consider workshops in time management, getting organized, wellness, customer service, financial literacy, etc.

Check your own resources. What skills do your employees have? Is there someone who would love the chance to teach on a topic such as time management? Notice the employees that excel in certain skills and give them the opportunity to share their knowledge. Maybe pay them a bit of a bonus for it! You may be grooming a great speaker.

Read together. Pick a great business book and have all employees read a section per week. Spend 10 minutes of staff meeting discussing the book. Give incentives for keeping up with reading and/or make it required.

There are many ways to keep your team sharp without sending them across the country for an expensive conference. Brainstorm creative ideas rather than cut the budget entirely.

Special note: sometimes, support staff is left out of "professional development." This is a BIG mistake. Not only does it contribute to a fractured culture, it sends the message that their work is not as important when in fact, the support staff is often the foundation of your company. ALWAYS include support staff in some type of professional development plan.

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Holiday Hints for Team Leaders

Give out small gifts or gift cards. Hang cards or small gifts on a tree and draw numbers to see which employee gets to choose first, second, etc. Check into laws about how much can be given in gifts/gift cards before it becomes taxable income to an employee.

Work on a community project together. Volunteer projects abound as well as opportunities to collect items for food banks and non profit agencies. Encourage your team to get involved.

Consider shutting the office down early or allowing team members to take a half day with pay sometime in December to run errands/do shopping.

If you can afford it, treat your team to a really nice restaurant and include spouses/guests. Then again, simple celebrations are nice too. Maybe the boss can have everyone over to his house. Or you can bring in breakfast.

Do some fun icebreakers at staff meetings. Keep the mood light throughout the month of December.

Beware of timing: the holidays is NOT the time to make major announcements like layoffs, etc, although unfortunately that hasn't stopped companies from doing so. If you must deliver bad news, do all you can to handle it graciously and with as much reasonable lead time as possible (it can serve your team members to know they may need to hold off on holiday spending if layoffs are looming.) If at all possible, try to run your business so these types of things don't have to happen during holidays.

Be careful of precedents. While large Christmas bonuses are wonderful, if it happens every year, your employees may come to expect that and be really disappointed when they can't get one. Instead, consider year round profit sharing options that spread the benefit into their regular paychecks, or do surprise bonuses at various times, with a kind but reasonable gift at Christmas.

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