And yet, so many leaders do this very poorly.

Some of the implications for lack of accountability include:

• Below average performance of the team and organization
• Resentment builds among team members
• Lack of accountability becomes a part of the culture and spreads
• Lose high performers who leave the company

Here is what you need to do to become better at holding others accountable:

1.  Make sure that you set the standard by following through with every commitment.  You set the tone.  Learn more here.

2.  Establish specific outcomes for every job.  Hold people accountable for the results they need to produce, not progress on their to do list.

3.  Make sure you are clear on the specific expectations of every team member.

4.  Communicate commitments made by each team member in writing after every team meeting.

5.  When people miss deadlines, contact them and ask for an update.  Discipline yourself to do this every time.  Don’t play favorites.  And, you don’t have to be a jerk about it.  Just ask.

6.  Encourage your team to hold one another accountable.

This is a good start.  If you do these things consistently, then you will build a culture of accountability.  In time, this culture will reinforce itself.  High performers will be drawn to your team.

The pace of change in our world seems to increase exponentially on a regular basis.  This can frustrate a lot of people when they begin a Strategy effort.  “What’s the point,” they may say, “the future is so unpredictable!”

While this can be true, a solid Strategy will:

• Clarify your Mission and the difference you want to make
• Set your Ideal Vision for the future
• Establish Three-Five Strategic Goals
• Identify relevant SWOTs: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats that are relevant to implementing your Strategic Goals

In a Strategy Refresh, you can briefly revisit each of these items.

• Your Mission probably has not changed. If not, reaffirm and Onward!
• Maybe you want to update your Vision. If so, great.  This does not have to be a long process.
• Are your Strategic Goals still relevant? Most of them probably are.  If you need to change them for any reason, go for it.  It is more likely that you may want to tweak them based on what you have learned in the past year.
• It is likely that some of your SWOTs have changed – either due to internal changes (i.e., staffing, finances) or external changes. Make sure that you identify these changes and feed them into your implementation process.

A strategy refresh is a healthy standard operating procedure to help make sure that you are still on the right path to your vision and mission.  It will help assure that you maximize your Mission Impact.

Often we think of great leaders as inspiring and motivating.  While these are important qualities, new research recently reported in Harvard Business Review, tells us that great leaders aren’t just great motivators; they are expert talent allocators. Their secret sauce isn’t how hard they push their team, but how well they place them.

A critical responsibility for leaders is deciding who works on what—matching specific individuals to the roles and tasks where they fit best.

When managers use this “allocative power” effectively, the results are transformative. These “high-flyer” managers don’t just increase immediate output; they fundamentally alter the trajectory of their employees’ careers. Workers under these leaders see higher wage growth and increased productivity—benefits that often last long after they have moved on to other roles or even other companies.

To move beyond motivating and start effectively shaping careers, consider these three shifts in your management style:

1. Prioritize the “Match”: Stop viewing roles as static boxes to be filled. Instead, treat every assignment as a matching problem. Regularly assess whether an employee’s unique skills are being utilized to their highest potential in their current tasks. If there is a mismatch, the “miserable” employee often isn’t a bad worker; they are simply in the wrong role.
2. Encourage Internal Mobility: The best managers don’t hoard talent; they circulate it. Research shows that top leaders frequently facilitate cross-functional moves. By helping an employee transition to a different department where their skills are more relevant, you aren’t “losing” a team member—you are optimizing the organization’s greatest asset.
3. Think Beyond Motivation: While morale matters, it is a byproduct of a good fit. When a person is perfectly matched to a role that challenges and utilizes their strengths, motivation often follows naturally.

In an era of rapid technological disruption and AI, the ability to reallocate and realign talent is more than a management skill—it is a competitive necessity. By focusing on placement over pressure, you don’t just improve your team’s productivity today; you build the foundation for their success tomorrow.

*Ideas for this blog taken from: Minni, V.,  “New Research on How the Best Managers Shape Employees Careers,” Harvard Business Review online, October 1, 2025.

You were hired to manage the team because you were an excellent individual performer.  And now you want everyone to perform at the same high level.  So you are constantly looking over their shoulders.

You don’t want to micromanage, but you need to know what is going on – and that things are being done properly.  What do you do?

Drawing on a recent Harvard Business Review article, here are a few strategies to help you stay in the loop without falling into the trap of micromanagement.

1. Focus on Outcomes, Not Tasks. Instead of getting bogged down in every detail of a project, focus on the outcomes. Come to agreement with your colleague on milestones that should be met on the way to the final outcome. Shift your check-ins from “What are you doing today?” to “What progress have you made toward the milestones?” This approach trusts your team to manage their own time and methods while keeping everyone aligned on the ultimate objective.
2. Use Project Management Tools Effectively. Leverage tools to your advantage. Platforms like Asana, Microsoft Project, Trello, or Jira can provide a shared, transparent view of project progress without requiring constant interruptions. You can track milestones and deadlines, giving you peace of mind and freeing up your team to do their best work.  These tools also help team members coordinate work together.
3. Schedule Proactive, Not Reactive, Check-ins. Don’t wait for a problem to emerge before you check in. Instead, schedule regular, predictable check-ins. This could be a 15-minute bi-weekly stand-up or a quick one-on-one. Proactive communication builds trust and helps you spot potential issues early, so you can offer support before they become crises.
4. Not All Projects are the Same. Evaluate each project your team members are working on and set a check-in schedule based on its importance. Similarly, this can guide you on how detailed of an update you need.  If a project is truly “mission critical,” you may need to be assured that everything is being done exactly right.  Other projects will require less scrutiny.

No one wants to be known as a micromanaging jerk of a boss.  But you also can’t have your important team projects fail.  By adopting these strategies, you can maintain a clear line of sight into your team’s work, foster a culture of trust and autonomy, and ultimately lead more effectively.

*Ideas for this blog taken from: Wilding, M.  “How to Stay on Top of Your Team’s Projects – Without Micromanaging,” Harvard Business Review online, July 28, 2025.

First, I will admit that I am a Recovering Multi-Tasker.  I know that I should close all of my apps, notifications, and windows to focus on only one thing at a time, but I backslide.  If you want to learn how and why to kick the multi-tasking habit, check out this blog.

The next step to greater productivity is to prioritize your weekly and daily To Do Lists.  If you have never seen Steven Covey’s Big Rocks video, check it out here.

If you have stopped trying to multi-task and you already prioritize your To Do List, then you are ready for the next level of productivity breakthrough: Timeboxing.  Below are some ideas about how to implement this practice, taken from a recent Harvard Business Review article.  If you want more, there is a book by Marc Zao-Sanders: Timeboxing: The Power of Doing One Thing at a Time.

*Take your Prioritized To Do List and transfer it to your Calendar.

*Block the amount of time you think you need for each Task.  This is a Timebox.

*Focus ONLY on that Task during that time period.  When the time is up, move to the next Task.

*Review and Adjust.  If you did not complete the Task, either add another Timebox or reprioritize.

*Leave some unscheduled time on your calendar to make yourself available for meetings that might arise.  If no meetings come up, great – you can add a Timebox for a Task you previously did not have time for.

*No Encroachment!  Don’t let people steal your Task Timebox for a meeting that they think is important.  Worst case – trade your Task Timebox for some unscheduled time so you can attend a meeting that is truly an emergency.

*No Time? If you are one of those people who are booked in meetings all day long, with no time for Task Timeboxes then you need to stop that.  You will never get anything done.  Check out this blog to learn more.

Give it a try!  Timeboxing promises increased focus, improved productivity, and reduced procrastination.  Maybe you can even make more free time for yourself.

*Ideas for this blog taken from: Zao-Sanders, M.  “How Timeboxing Works and Why It Will Make You More Productive,” Harvard Business Review online, December 12, 2018.

One of the biggest mistakes I see in implementation is a lack of Accountability.

Accountability is one of the five pillars of teamwork excellence, according to Patrick Lencioni – in his book, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team – and I could not agree more.

Accountability begins with you – the leader.

Management Guru Peter Drucker once said: “The most important person you manage is yourself.”

Can your team trust you to follow through on your promises?  Do you get everything done by when you say you will?  Do you bring your “A” game to every project.  Do you make things right when you make a mistake?  Pittsburgh Steelers Football Coach, Mike Tomlin, is fond of saying “The standard is the standard.”  What standard are you setting?

By the way, even if you are not “the boss,” you can still influence the performance of your team when you hold yourself accountable to high standards.

Once you are fulfilling high standards for yourself with respect to Accountability, then it is time to hold others accountable.  This does not mean that you need to be a jerk about it.  You are simply asking others to fall in line with the standard you have set.

After every team meeting, make sure that someone has taken notes that are distributed to the team.  The most important section of the notes are commitments that team members have agreed to, such as “Rob has agreed to provide an update on customer satisfaction statistics one day before our next meeting.”

If people do not fulfill their promises, you need to follow up with them – and this can be done privately: “Rob, you had promised that customer satisfaction report by yesterday, but I have not seen it.  Please provide an update.”

Leaders who let even little promises slide show that they are accepting a culture of mediocrity, instead of excellence.  In this example, talk with Rob about what is going on and provide some firm coaching.  Support him in making sure this does not happen again.

Set high standards for yourself and your team.  Whether you decide to quote Mike Tomlin or not, you can let them know – by your example – that “the standard is the standard.”

Most of us know this.  Yet, most leaders end up “adding” more things to do for their organizations, rather than getting rid of things.  Research shows we are “wired” this way.  When humans are asked to think of ways to improve things, we fall into “addition bias.”

We can be much more effective if can focus some of our time on a “stop doing” list.  A recent article in Harvard Business Review provides excellent ideas on how to proceed.  One of the authors’ primary ideas is to employ a Good Riddance Review:

1.  Ask colleagues and customers to identify unnecessary obstacles.  The Hawaii Pacific Health system launched GROSS: Get Rid of Stupid Stuff.  They asked nurses, docs, and assistants to nominate anything that was “poorly designed, unnecessary, or just plain stupid.”  They ended up saving thousands of hours in staff time by implementing suggestions.

2.  Calculate the burdens of performance measurement.  KISS: Keep It Super Simple.  Only measure the most important stuff.  I know one organization that cut its performance dashboard from 32 metrics to eight.

3.  Assess the burden imposed by meetings.  Cut meeting time by a third.  There should probably be fewer and shorter meetings in your organization.  And they definitely need to be better run – including agendas for every meeting (See here for more ideas.)

4.  Catalog email overload.  Or don’t catalog it – just get rid of as much of it as you can.  Many organizations have guidelines to limit email between 10PM – 6AM and on weekends.  Rethink all of the CCs.  Challenge people to limit the length of each email.

5.  Count how many people report to each leader.  You think you are being efficient by having more than six people report to each leader, but you are actually drowning them in meetings.  They don’t have the time to do their own work or manage people well.

This is just the beginning.  The article is chock full of additional ideas on how to get rid of the BS and I encourage you to check it out.

What do we do with the time we save?  How about having a more balanced life?  Or devoting some time to being really strategic (vs reactionary) in your planning?  Cut out the BS.  Save time, frustration, and make even more of a Mission Impact.

*Ideas for this blog taken from: Sutton, R. I. & Rao, H.  “Rid Your Organization of Obstacles That Infuriate Everyone,” Harvard Business Review, January – February 2024, pp. 100 – 107.

It can be intoxicating indeed – “Hey everyone, the boss needs us in the conference room ASAP for an emergency meeting!”  And there you have heated discussions why someone just complained about the color you used on a recent advertising flyer – and what to do about it.

Give me a break.

Unless you work in an actual hospital emergency room or maybe the White House, you probably do not have many real emergencies.  Most of them are either manufactured or overblown.

Here are some suggestions on what to do about this “urgency epidemic,” including some ideas from a recent HBR article:

*Start with No.  Be suspicious of every call to urgency.  Assume that it is not worth dropping everything for this issue.  Require the person ringing the emergency bell to make an exceptional case.

*Buffer Your Team.  If Big Bosses ring the urgency bell – and you know they will – then take one for the team.  Tell the bosses that the rest of your crew is slammed in another emergency, but you will attend their urgency party.

*Prioritize Importance, Over Urgency.  This is wisdom from Stephen Covey in his book First Things First.  The idea is that we need to prioritize our time on matters of longer term importance, rather than immediate (supposed) urgency.  Learn more in this blog.

*Beware of Urgency Personalities.  You probably know who these people are.  A colleague of mine was far behind on a project and he lamented to me that he was a victim of “the tyranny of the urgent.”  It turns out, however, that he really loved it.  Being so valuable that he was called upon to work on an urgent problem had become a part of his self-image.

Just say “no” to the Tyranny of the Urgent!  Focus on what is important and save your team from endless, meaningless, fire drills.

*Ideas for this blog taken from: Smith, D.  “5 Tactics to Combat a Culture of False Urgency at Work,” Harvard Business Review online, October 17, 2023.

VUCA stands for Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous.  Many organization leaders adopted the term to describe their environments as well.

Since COVID, many people feel like we are experiencing VUCA on Steroids.  With that in mind, here are some ideas on dealing with this new, extreme VUCA environment from a recent article in Harvard Business Review.

*More Data is Not the Answer.  Ask your team to look for “exceptional information” – data that seems unusual and does not fit the norm.  This may lead to new trends.  And don’t fall into the trap of Analysis Paralysis – see this blog for more.

*Use the New Science of Active Questioning.  Active Listening is good, but Active Questioning is the process of asking deeper questions beyond “Why” something happened.  Ask “What, Who, Where, When, How.”  Don’t accept simple explanations.

*Train Planners to be Nimble.  Practice scenario planning with a wide variety of different environments in mind.  Get crazy and have some fun with it.  The point is not to try to predict the future; we have little chance of that.  The point is to practice being ready to pivot, no matter what.

*Channel Your Anger.  The unexpected naturally triggers our fight or flight instincts.  Don’t suppress your anger or fear when challenges arise – just channel it into action and use the energy.  I always feel like when I get pissed off I have moved one step closer to success.

The future will continue to be unknown and hazy.  Hopefully we will not experience anything as devastating and deadly as Covid in the years ahead.  But using some of these ideas to prepare ourselves for the inevitable VUCA curveballs that will come our way, will allow us to address them as effectively as possible.

*Ideas for this blog taken from: Fletcher, A., Gaines, T, & Loney, B.  “How to Be a Better Leader Amid Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity,”  Harvard Business Review online, September 28, 2023.

Multitasking is is a myth.

Psychiatrist Edward Hallowell defines multitasking as a “mythical activity in which people believe they can perform two or more tasks simultaneously as effectively as one.”

When we try to do this – and I am certainly guilty of it – we are actually “task switching.”  It makes us feel busy, but it is not efficient and results in lower quality work.  We actually lose work time in each instance when we switch.

If you are searching for a new amazing way to boost your creativity, here it is: Single-Tasking.

Here is how to do it:

1.  Create a distraction-free environment.  Don’t keep windows open on your computer, put your phone away, and have do not disturb sign on your office door.

2.  Prioritize your tasks.  Don’t go to the next task unless you are done with the first one.

3.  Organize your calendar into 30 minute blocks.  Work on only one task for 25 minutes and then take a five minute break.  If you are not done, then keep going after the break for another block for as long as you have time.

4.  Optional:  make a sign that says FOCUS and tape it to your computer like one of my colleagues does!

We are all searching for ways to maximize efficiency and productivity.  Multitasking is a mythical mirage!  Don’t be fooled by it.  Try this Single-Tasking approach and make even more of a Mission Impact.

Ideas for this blog taken from: Ness Labs blog by Dr. Hannah Rose: “Single-tasking: the power of focusing on one task at a time.”