It takes time…

Its funny.

Over the last two years that I have been working with this client, I have started to see some changes in his business.

Business metrics improving.

People starting to talk about issues with data and directness. No more political stuff.
People holding people accountable.

This last one is being driven by him and his business team. The Director of Human Resources made a comment to him that he relayed to me.

He explained to me that he told his HR person that he was concerned about the number of people being fired. Yes, he said it. During his short tenure of 25 months, he had to fire three people and he just had two more that came under disciplinary review.

His frustration (or maybe concern) was because he did not want to be seen as a dictator or hatchet person. Now, here is what is interesting. The HR Director’s response.

You are the first person to hold people accountable in the facility. In addition, you are the first person to require documentation of all disciplinary actions. Everything is documented with you. You collect and now have the data.

Do you really think that people did not screw up before? Of course they did. They just were not held accountable. And if they were, documentation was hardly ever used.

So now… these same people are being held accountable. They are given corrective action plans to follow; retraining; and encouragement to succeed. If they choose the correct path, they continue to grow.

If not, they are corrected again. The people that have been corrected more than five times (which is the case for each of the employees released) do not deserve to be an employee of the company.

Have you raised the bar?

Maybe or maybe not. But you are definitely holding people accountable to the standard that has been set.

I smiled as I listened to him.

He knows he is a good leader. His leadership has developed over the last couple years.

The most crucial piece to making this happen… consistency over time.