Prepare well to face the conflict of holding people to account
When it comes to having difficult or potentially confrontational conversations, how well do you prepare?
An accountability conversation is never going to go well if you start it with:
“For Heaven’s sake, what’s wrong with those bozos!”
Successful breakthrough accountability starts with you, working on you first. Before you even open your mouth!
Remember, when asking a member of your team to account for their actions, the success of the conversation lives or dies on how you deliver what you want to say and the way the other person receives it, especially in these uncertain times.
Problems rarely come in tiny boxes, they come in giant, messy bundles that you have to take the time to unbundle…
The key to the success of the accountability conversation you have is choosing the right problem or issue for your conversation and preparing well.
Let’s try an example from home; even if you don’t have teenagers, it’s easy to relate to this scenario:
You’ve given your teenage daughter a curfew time to come home, but over an hour late she saunters in with the boyfriend (that you don’t really like), she doesn’t apologise for being late and it has happened despite her promise to be on time…
Which issue do you choose to address? It’s a messy bundle and you risk rushing into a heated argument…
So, focus on the one issue that bothers you the most:
- She’s late… again
- She broke her promise
- She created fear as you hate her driving late at night
- She did not communicate her lateness
- She has not apologised
- She has defied your parental rules
Which issue would you choose?
Click here to learn how to choose the most important issue and prepare well to face the conflict of holding people to account.
