Every day, teams let their leaders down.

They fail to execute on the assigned tasks, come to meetings unprepared, and offer up a host of excuses for why the work didn’t get done, including some of my favorites:

“I ran out of time”
“There’s way too many conflicting priorities”
“This assignment wasn’t clear; I didn’t know I was supposed to be doing X.”

AND, the ones they’re NOT going to tell you about, like:

“I didn’t think you’d actually follow up on this. I thought you’d forget.”
“I didn’t think there would be any consequences if I didn’t do it.”
“I just didn’t care that much about this.”

The best advice I ever got from a boss on how to handle these kinds of situations was the following:

“First, it’s YOU. Then, it’s THEM. Then, it’s YOU.” (Thanks Donald Peaks!).

In other words, when we’re empowering others, the responsibility is:

FIRST, on US.
✔️ To make sure the assignment is clear and there’s understanding, to know how competent/capable our people actually are, to create great culture.

Then, on THEM.
✔️ They must do the work, ask questions if they get stuck, renegotiate commitments if they start feeling a deadline isn’t the right one)

Then, back on YOU.
✔️ To hold them accountable and have tough conversations when they don’t do your part.

I hate to say it, but if you’re team is letting you down, it’s very possible that YOU’RE the reason. No matter what, it’s always up to YOU to prevent it from happening (especially over and over again).

Here’s what you MUST do if you don’t want your people to fail you any more.

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