Improving Employee Accountability

For those of you who don’t know the name Ferdinand Fournies in connection with the field of leadership, it’s a good name to know. His book, “Coaching for improved worked performance” is still the gold standard for leaders seeking to improve the performance of their managers and their own direct reports.

One of the concepts in his book is why people don’t do the work they are assigned or assume. One useful theory says there are 3 primary reasons for performance dysfunction:

A.The employee does not know how to perform the task.
B.The employee does not want to perform the task.
C.The employee perceives there is something or someone hindering or
preventing from performing the task.

Fournies says that “A” means are we are not training properly; “B” is tied to motivation and “C” can be a psychological or physical impediment.

When you are having a performance problem in your company, test for these three primary causes, capability, desire and/or impediments, real or imagined. Change the cause and you’ll likely change the result.

It’s not psychology. It’s humaneering.