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The other day I was catching up with one of my freelancers who seemed on the down and outs. After getting her to talk, she explained that in one of her other jobs, the boss was not holding the entire team accountable.

It was well known, even within their HR, that the boss heavily practiced selective accountability; they were partial to only one person on the team. Of course, it just so happened to be the smallest contributor to the workload and the least technically qualified or experienced. This meant that their work was frequently reallocated to other persons with no acknowledgement of the large issue. What’s worse was that someone else had recently resigned due to frustration with the same issue. The rest of the team was demotivated. Today, I dedicate this post to her and other employees in a similar situation.

Self-Assessment Time: Are You Practicing Selective Employee Accountability?

I’m a huge advocate of self-checks, especially as a leader in the middle. Our situation is a precarious one — we are held to a higher standard but often lack the immediate oversight to call ourselves out when we drop the ball. And yes, we all do drop the ball from time to time, we are human. The difference is that a strong leader acknowledges this and knows that performing self-assessments is mission critical. We’re going to do that right now.

Test Time!

I’m going ask you to pause and reflect on the following questions:

1. Have you ever worked for a boss that did not hold everyone on your team accountable?

2. If you answered yes to this question, my next question for you is, what did you think of your boss?
☐ Did not care.
☐ Weak.
☐ Unengaged.
☐ You did not respect, but maybe liked them.
☐ They’re not worthy of a pumpkin spice latte.

I’m not done yet. Here’s the heaviest question and you may not like your own response.

3. As a leader, do you have someone on your team that you may have allowed to slide under the radar? For example, you may already have written them off as a bad employee, so you simply avoid calling them out.

If you’ve answered yes to the final question, then I am sorry my friend, but there’s a good chance your employees view you as that misguided boss from above. I don’t want you to be viewed as an amazingly terrible leader; let’s fix that.

Why Practicing Selective Employee Accountability Is a Leadership Fail and How to Fix It

The lack of accountability is seen as a lack of caring. We can’t continue to practice the same vicious habits that we endured on our climb up the ladder. So, we cannot set the same trap our bosses before us did. In past articles I’ve mentioned the Great Resignation and offer advice about how you can get through it. But we’ve got to be balanced in our approach and always take a look through the other lens.

You can and will lose great employees because you fail to hold the bad ones accountable. That may even be the reason you left your last company or decided to start your own business. It is a demotivating, hurtful and terrible leadership practice. Emotions aside, it also negatively impacts employee performance and thus hits the company’s overall bottom line. Bad employees don’t get the job done and if the work is not being done, how can targets be met?

Having Tough Conversations

Accountability requires compassion, engagement, boldness and self-sacrifice as a leader.

After you’ve acknowledged this bump in your leadership style, then it’s time to act. In my book, The Sales Leaders Gameplan, I explain that as leaders, it’s part of the job to have difficult conversations. This means confronting situations head-on or risk losing knowledge or revenue. Even more, as leaders our job is to make our employees get the job done. This is where I remind you, it’s never the right time to make a hard decision, especially when it’s about poor-performing employees. But, at the end of the day it still has to get done.

Again, this is fixable; start by showing you care about your team by holding all employees accountable.

Remember, the best leaders always step up and do the right thing, even if it starts by recognizing and fixing our own mistakes.

MANA welcomes your comments on this article. Write to us at [email protected].