Leading remote teams? How to build trust and accountability

This article is split into three sections:

1. The importance of trust and how to develop it
2. Why accountability matters and how to achieve it
3. How to balance trust and accountability for improved performance

Having trust makes it easier to introduce challenge, set standards and build accountability. Accountability is critical for remote based teams. If handled in the right way, it motivates, challenges and helps us to perform at our best. We all need accountability.

A view of accountability that I like is from Craig Dowden, an Executive Coach and author and it’s a great starting point.

“Encouraging employees to take responsibility for their decisions and actions, and to accept the associated outcomes, can result in extensive benefits for organisations. However, it is crucial that such circumstances take place in a supportive environment.”

It’s important to recognise the emphasis on ‘encouraging’ and ‘supportive’ here. The type of accountability we are trying to achieve is the constructive and healthy type, where it helps to motivate, stretch and challenge without pushing unrealistic demands on individuals resulting in unhealthy stress or anxiety.

Leaders I work with find it helpful to be clear between the leader’s accountability and that of the team member, as it’s an area that is often blurred:

• Primary Accountability: This sits with the individual. It is the leader’s responsibility to help create this but not to reduce or minimise it by being too ‘helpful’ or ‘controlling’. A lack of primary accountability can lead to low motivation and low performance in teams.
• Ultimate Accountability: The leader has ultimate responsibility for the team and individual performances. However, confusion here can lead to a leader diluting primary accountability. Worries about the individuals performance and the pressure to deliver can make it tempting for the leader take over, provide ‘the answer’ or delegate the task to someone else.

The most effective approach to building primary accountability is to use coaching style questions. Our goal is for the team to think for themselves, to generate options, state their preference, which then helps to achieve commit to action.

Here are some examples of coaching questions that work well:

• What is your intention this week?
• What do you want to achieve?
• How will you know when you have got there?
• What might get in the way?
• What could you do about that?
• What support do you need?
• What did you achieve?
• What have you learnt?
• What could/will you do differently next time?

This approach can be highly effective whether it’s used with a high performing individual or with someone who is struggling. For example, a member of staff who is already performing well will feel supported and encouraged. Someone who is not taking ownership of their own performance will find these questions uncomfortable but it’s undeniably an approach that is intended to support them too.

What is also particularly important is that they know there will be a follow up conversation and that will include being asked what they achieved, and what their approach was.

It also provides a healthy basis for providing feedback, For example, it’s not much of a stretch to develop questions such as ‘what went well?’, ‘what have your learnt?’ to ‘can I share some of my own observations with you?’