Holding People Accountable

When employees miss deadlines, fail to complete assignments, or produce unacceptable results, leaders are often told:

"Do a better job of holding your employees accountable."

Familiar words—but what do they actually mean?

How should a leader respond when an employee performs poorly? What about when an employee performs exactly as expected, exceeds expectations, or falls short because something interfered with the employee's ability to perform?

In this fully revised second edition of *Holding People Accountable*, human performance engineer Paul B. Conor offers a broader and more practical way to think about one of leadership's most important responsibilities.

You will learn how to respond appropriately when an employee:

- exceeds the specified result,
- achieves the specified result,
- falls short because something interfered with performance, or
- could have achieved the result but did not.

Rather than treating accountability as synonymous with correction or discipline, Conor provides a practical framework for evaluating employee performance and deciding what an appropriate response should look like.

Because holding employees accountable is not only about what to do when someone does something wrong. It is about recognizing what happened, understanding the performance condition, and responding appropriately.

If you lead, supervise, or manage other people, *Holding People Accountable* will help you make better decisions about what to do next when employee performance requires a response.