Sick of preventable project delays? Tired of hearing "that’s not my job?" This game-changing leadership tool is the answer to your accountability woes.

Being a snow contractor is not for the faint of heart. It’s natural to look at business challenges and blame the usual suspects: a terrible labor market and all-too-common supply issues.

But there is one overlooked reason contractors run into project delays, company drama and poor profit—a lack of staff accountability.

Unlike supply and labor shortages (which are largely out of your control), staff accountability is an area where you can take full ownership…and it’s surprisingly easy to fix.

In this article, we’ll show you why poor accountability is so rampant in our industry and how to identify if you have a staff accountability problem; and then walk you through ways to improve staff accountability using a proven method.

Five signs you have an issue

For a snow removal business to be successful, a lot of operations need to function in harmony. When they don’t, the reason can often be found in your approach to accountability.

So, what is accountability, exactly? It’s everyone doing what they say they’ll do and taking responsibility for their jobs.

If any of the below feel familiar… you probably have a problem within your organization.

1. Vague goals. You’ve set some standards. Maybe you even have a few processes in place. But try as you might, you can’t get your team to follow them.
2. Blame games. When things go wrong, nobody steps up to own the problem. Instead, there’s a lot of finger-pointing and buck-passing.
3. Rogue actions. You asked for a new client’s driveway to be plowed. They painted the plow instead. Alright, that’s an outlandish example, but you get the idea.
4. Entitled mindsets. Not to be mistaken for ambition (which is a good thing), you’re getting requests for raises, promotions or other demands out of a sense of entitlement.
5. Stagnant business. Your company seems like it’s plateaued. You may still be busy, but it feels like your growth is standing still, and your team is just going through the motions.

Instilling accountability

Most contractors feel overwhelmed by the thought of making accountability a more entrenched part of their operations. It’s common to worry that:

• When you have to crack the whip…nobody will like you.
• You’ll get stuck doing a bunch of handholding you don’t have time for.
• You’ll lose people. It’s already so difficult to find staff, you can’t afford to give up the ones you have, right? (Trust us when we say, you definitely can.)

But the real underlying reason you’re struggling to hold accountability? We’re going to get real for a second and hit you with a hard truth. You ready?

It’s you. Accountability rests with you. You’re the leader, and if your staff feel distanced from your company’s vision, then your expectations aren’t clear. And it’s your job to fix it. (We did say this would be simple…not necessarily easy.) It’s time to step up. There are proven strategies for getting from goal to result without losing your way. The good news is, becoming an organization that embraces — rather than shuns — accountability doesn’t have to be painful. You just need a good system.

ENTER: Goal Setting & Review (GSR), a leadership tool that bridges the gap between where you are and where you want to be. It provides a framework for accountability within your company and helps define precise action items for nailing goals, while giving you visibility into the state of the projects you do for clients as well as the implementation initiatives you undertake internally. Because you can’t manage what you can’t measure.

Key GSR system components

The GSR system centers around regular one-on-one meetings between you and your direct report, where you’ll look at their status in three timeframes:

Past: What they’ve done

Present: What they’re up to now

Future: What they intend to do next

There’s a lot of flexibility when setting up a GSR for your business. Regardless of how you use it, there are some key aspects that shouldn’t change (see GSR—Keeping Consistent below).

How to run a GSR meeting?

Your GSR system should be molded to fit your organization’s needs, but some aspects will be similar for everyone. Set aside time for the direct report to fill in the GSR doc and for their supervisor to review their prep. The key is to update the previous goal and results and plan for next week’s goals.

In every GSR meeting, you would have a check-in, go through the goals and review performance, plan for future goals, and talk through any administrative items.

There is one vital question you want to be sure to include: How are you doing?

This is the most important question in the entire meeting! Beyond just helping to keep projects on track, GSR systems are about ensuring your staff knows they’re supported and you’re looking out for them.

Developing your relationship with your direct is pivotal. This system isn’t just about them working to achieve your goals for your company. It’s also about you supporting them to achieve their goals to develop their career. For example, most production managers are under-supported firefighters: overworked and frustrated. A little love goes a long way.

Prepare for transformation

In our experience, employees generally respond very well to the newfound support and empowerment they receive through a GSR system. High performers want to have clear goals and deliverables.

We have free resources and tools that have helped improve staff accountability for over 1,537 leading contractors across the US and Canada. To help you implement GSR, get these free industry-tested resources and tools that you can use right away to keep your team accountable.

While you’ll only be holding GSR meetings with your direct reports, the system can have a knock-on effect throughout the entire organization. Productivity becomes more efficient. Employee retention improves. Staff develop faster.

Measurable results help everyone stay on track, which means you spend less time firefighting. Your team goes from being reactive, to being proactive. Your profit margins improve. And your phone quits ringing at all hours of the day and night.

GSR - Keeping consistent

There’s a lot of flexibility when setting up a GSR for your business. Regardless of how you use it, there are some key aspects that shouldn’t change:

Consistency: The meeting schedule should be set in stone. Whether it’s weekly or bi-weekly, it should occur at the same time, every time.

Preparation: To make the meeting productive, your direct report should show up with their plan ready and all metrics completed, which forces them to be dialed in to what’s happening in their world.

Specificity: "Do my best" doesn’t cut it here. Each goal for the week should be crystal clear so you can see right away whether it’s completed or not. Evaluating success should be black or white. No gray zones.

Focus: This plays out in a couple ways, on both sides of the table (or screen, if you meet virtually). To avoid overwhelming your direct report, have them aim to achieve just one or two high-priority goals at a time. In return, during the GSR meetings, give them your full, undivided attention.

Danny Kerr is a founder of The Breakthrough Academy, created to help you evolve from a doer of all things to a builder of smart systems and a leader of great people. Learn more at btacademy.com.