HOW TO SET CLEAR EXPECTATIONS AND BUILD ACCOUNTABILITY IN CPA FIRMS
Setting Expectations and Holding Accountability: Four Essential Questions
Expectations and accountability are two of the most common leadership challenges I hear about in coaching conversations. They are also often treated as complicated management problems when they can become much clearer with four simple questions.
Expectation Questions
- What will you do?
Define the expected result clearly enough that both people understand what success looks like. - When will it be done?
A commitment without timing is usually an intention. Agree on the date or point in time when the result is expected.
Accountability Questions
- How will I know it is done?
Clarify how completion will be communicated or observed. Do not leave follow-up to chance. - What will happen if you do or don’t do this thing?
Accountability needs consequence. Sometimes the consequence is positive, sometimes corrective, and sometimes simply the natural result of the commitment being kept or missed.
These questions are useful because they move expectations out of our heads and into a conversation.
Leaders sometimes believe they have been clear because they know what they meant. Team members sometimes believe they have committed because they generally understand the request. The four questions force both people to make the agreement visible.
What will you do? When will it be done? How will I know? What happens next?
Expectations and accountability can be easier than we make them.
For a practical way to define who does the work, who owns the outcome, and who needs to be consulted or informed, see RACI for CPA Firms: Clarify Roles, Delegate Work and Plan Succession.
Make Your Next Leadership Conversation Clearer
Where are unclear expectations creating friction in your firm? If you’re a CPA firm partner, owner or leader, executive coaching can help you examine how you communicate, work through difficult conversations, and build clearer commitments with the people you lead. Bring a situation you’re working through, and we can explore what needs to be said, agreed on, and followed through.
Explore coaching with The CPA Coach →
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Continue exploring with New CPA Firm Partner? 4 Things to Do in Your First Year, Coachability: The Skill That Separates Future CPA Firm Leaders, and The Leverage Problem.
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