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    • Action plan

    Improving your accountability as a leader

    High effort

    High impact

    Your team may have KPIs, one-to-ones, salary reviews and more, but what’s holding you accountable? Are you confident you’re performing at a high level? Do you ever find yourself being a bottleneck or failing to complete tasks you’ve committed to? Improving your accountability makes sure your company is working efficiently and can help to reduce stress levels.

    • We’ve designed our action plans to be completed in the order of steps laid out and explained why each step is important
    • Customising your action plan lets you set your own completion dates, assign tasks to others and get notifications
    • Helpful tools are provided for certain steps while a tracking metric at the end will help you determine the long-term success of your effort
    • A downloadable PDF version of each action plan is available if you’d like to compete it offline
    What's involved? Ways to use this action plan Measuring impact
    1

    Identify a recent issue in your business and work back to the root cause, looking at what involvement you had in the situation or the processes that created it

    Impact: medium

    Why will this help?

    The buck stops with the person in charge. Looking into the root cause of issues often highlights management failures, whether training, a poor hiring decision, bad targets or something else.

    Getting to the root cause of a problem

    If you’ve identified a problem in your business, it’s important to get to the root cause before you take action.
    2

    Look at how much time you’re spending on tasks, where you’re adding value and if you’re creating a bottleneck on any business activities

    Impact: medium

    Why will this help?

    The frenetic pace of leadership means managers often flit between different tasks. Measuring what you’re spending time on provides a reality check.

    Calculate how much time you’re spending on tasks

    Download our template to calculate how much time you’re spending on tasks and whether you are adding value in the right areas.
    3

    Work through a structured checklist to make sure you’re delegating tasks properly and trust your team to get things right

    Impact: high

    Why will this help?

    It’s hard to work effectively if you’re micromanaging. Getting pulled into completing tasks that other team members are working on undermines your ability to plan your time and have enough of it to get everything done.

    Check employees have everything they need when delegating

    Successful delegation is all in the preparation. Work through our checklist when delegating tasks to make sure employees have everything they need to complete the work to a high standard.

    Building your mindset to trust your team

    Business leaders need to be able to delegate with confidence, which means it’s essential that they can trust their team. If you can develop that mindset, you’ll be able to work more effectively and empower the people around you.
    4

    Use team members and external advisers to hold yourself accountable

    Impact: high

    Why will this help?

    Having a coach or financial advisor that can question what you’ve achieved since you last met is a healthy way to put pressure on yourself. Similarly, team members should be able to hold you accountable if you’re failing to complete tasks you’re responsible for.

    5

    Set yourself three measurable goals, with help from your management team, that will improve your accountability as a leader

    Impact: high

    Why will this help?

    Setting goals for yourself, alongside those you set for the company and your team, makes sure you have a way to measure your impact and can improve your accountability.

    Creating a monthly routine to set goals and assess progress against long-term objectives

    Developing a monthly goal-setting routine allows you to check your progress against long-term objectives and reflect on any changes you need to make.

    What can I do with this Action Plan?

    Start this Action Plan

    Add some extra information to this plan and we’ll help you get it done.

    • We’ve designed our action plans to be completed in the order of steps laid out and explained why each step is important
    • Customising your action plan lets you set your own completion dates, assign tasks to others and get notifications
    • Helpful tools are provided for certain steps while a tracking metric at the end will help you determine the long-term success of your effort
    • A downloadable PDF version of each action plan is available if you’d like to compete it offline

    Download and print

    Get a printable template for this Action Plan, fill it in with some target dates, and share it with your team. Pin it on the wall where everyone can see it.

    Get the printable Action Plan

    Learning Groups

    We also run Learning Groups on these topics where you can join other leaders tackling the same challenges.

    Find a Learning Group

    How will I know if my action plan is working?

    Number of goals completed

    Whether you’re on track with your objectives

    Why this metric?

    If you’re holding yourself accountable, you should be able to complete your goals and meet targets.

    How do I start tracking?

    Review the progress you’ve made each quarter and check whether you’re on track to complete goals or have completed them already.