How can healthcare team members be held accountable for their performance?

Holding healthcare team members accountable for their performance involves setting clear expectations, providing regular feedback, and implementing performance metrics. Clearly communicating goals and responsibilities ensures everyone understands their role in achieving organizational objectives. Regular check-ins and performance reviews help monitor progress, identify areas for improvement, and celebrate successes.

Clearity of thought in the workplace is very important. A Healthcare work place is the most complex workplace on the face of this planet earth. Let me tell you how it is, the team consists of highly educated team leaders in the form of sepicist or superspecitist with highly specialised skills to the extreme of minimally educated and no skills. In between comes the ego. Helping every individual to evolve into better humans can solve the problem to certain extend

Healthcare managers must be clear and realistic when defining expectations and goals. With that said, I do believe in holding team members accountable for their performance. Unless their is an egregious error or infraction, however, the immediate follow-up question as a responsible line manager, is: 'Why did this happen, and what can I do to support the individual to help them learn and grow?'

Don't assume that employees just know what they are doing - I live by the phrase: "you don't know what you don't know." Communicate expectations clearly and be involved in the employees goal-setting - set SMART short, medium and long-term goals.

Defining expectations and goals is important, but creating buy-in and more importantly, ownership of them promotes accountability. Expect people to act with a purpose, that supports and aligns with organizational goals. Promote a sense of ownership to create self-accountability for deficiencies or failures. Accountability is not about discipline, it's about admitting and owning our deficiencies and responsibility for them. It's about wanting to improve. Discipline is about forcing improvement through consequences. Promote a culture of ownership and rewarding self-accountability. This will teach people to act with a purpose and promote self-success, which will in turn increase performance. Promote self-accountability and group will follow.

If team members are underperforming in their role (i.e. not meeting expectations or goals) then the fist thing we should do is ask them if they are okay - in my experience poor performance, especially in someone who is normally high achieving and not new in role, is due to some external factor such as illness or trouble at home. We should support these individuals. If this is not the case, then we must be candid about our expectations and come up with a plan as to how we can coach them to improve their performance.

Durante um momento de feedback, estreitar o relacionamento é crucial. Perguntas-chave incluem: 1. "Como você se sente em relação ao seu papel atual?" 2. "Quais são seus maiores desafios e como posso apoiá-lo?" 3. "Existe algum treinamento ou recurso que você acredita ser benéfico?" 4. "Como posso ajudar a desenvolver suas habilidades e metas profissionais?" 5. "O que podemos fazer para melhorar a comunicação e colaboração na equipe?" Essas perguntas promovem o diálogo construtivo, fortalecendo a relação entre avaliador e colaborador.

A 360-degree feedback mechanism synergized with modern coaching techniques can enhance accountability. In the modern-day healthcare system, digital platforms for continuous performance monitoring and feedback that encourage real-time, data-driven insights should be utilized. Merging these digital feedback mechanisms with coaching sessions that offer flexibility and personalized support for each team member allows for a more dynamic, responsive, and individualized method of maintaining high standards and continuous professional development within healthcare teams.

Offer regular, constructive feedback using various sources like patient surveys, peer reviews, and quality metrics. Incorporate coaching techniques to support team members' development, focusing on both strengths and areas needing improvement.

First make sure the difference between accountability and responsibility is defined and understood. Then make sure there is a formal structure for decision making. Define "standard work". This will improve engagement and buy-in of the people you work with. When people get to make decisions, they start growing. Put in place mistake proofing mechanisms. Make sure there are no negative or punitive repercussions in case a mistake happens. This will start turning the culture and will make employees more psychologically safe. This is the beginning of self-accountability and self-governing team.

In addition to including team members in decision-making, give them authority to make decisions and take actions that are appropriate for their job titles and level of responsibility. Having input is great, having the respect and trust of others that you are qualified and capable of making decisions and taking actions that are in alignment with your job requirements and responsibilities promotes ownership, respect, and trust. It will also promote creativity, and a sense of pride in how one performs. Empowerment promotes engagement, and engagement promotes empowerment, but trust and respect drive them both. Empower your people by allowing them to engage through their strengths and experiences.

The culture of your department should be one that promotes openness and collaboration. It is a known fact that employees work harder, and are more satisfied in their roles, when they are empowered and engaged in decision-making and problem-solving processes.

Encourage team members to take ownership of their tasks and involve them in decision-making processes. Foster an environment where they can contribute ideas and collaborate effectively. This empowerment can significantly enhance accountability.

We should not just provide constructive feedback when necessary, but also provide our team members with positive feedback when they have reached a milestone, or put in significant effort. It is important to treat all team members the same, and be mindful of the fact that some individuals dislike public recognition - this is something I have learnt over time.

Acknowledge and appreciate the efforts and achievements of team members. Implement a fair system of rewards and recognition that reflects their contributions and performance.

Constructive reinforcement is important when necessary. Underperformance, along with conflict, must be addressed promptly and with a serious tone. Be thorough in your process, and try to quickly identify the root cause of the problem. Once identified, switch your attention to a solution and what is needed to help get there.

When underperformance or conflicts arise, address them promptly. Identify the causes and collaborate with team members to develop corrective action plans. Apply appropriate consequences and ensure follow-up.

Regularly assess the effectiveness of your accountability strategies. Gather feedback from team members to understand the system's strengths and weaknesses, and make necessary adjustments.

It's not just important to evaluate people; it's also critical to evaluate the processes used to evaluate the people. Too often the system is designed and put to use without ever validating its findings. Talk to team members and other leaders. Are they satisfied with the methodology for evaluating their peers and those who report to them? Do they have suggestions for edits or improvements? As the expectations of the organization change, the system for evaluating performance needs to change to. Continuously look for ways to improve. Continuously listen to the team for suggestions. The best solutions nearly always come from those closest to the opportunity for improvement.

I try to refrain from micromanaging my staff; it gives staff the freedom to gather the right information via data, asking questions, etc. It allow the staff to decipher the information to decide what's viable or not. It empowers the staff to make the right decisions versus being told what needs to be done. They are able to see the positives, negatives, etc. of their decisions and how it affect the department, division, etc. The staff are held accountable through their means, decisions, and activities, and become a true litmus test of their performance.

A ideia de um líder injusto e que decide conforme a conveniência das circunstâncias é perniciosa e inviabiliza a estruturação de times de alta performance. Mas, se o líder tem discurso franco e objetivo, se expõe com clareza os motivos de suas ponderações e decisões e, mais importante, se os conecta aos valores e às metas da instituição, terá certamente o reconhecimento de sua equipe, que se mobilizará para a solução conjunta de obstáculos e contratempos.

In healthcare, instilling accountability is pivotal for optimal team performance. Establish explicit performance expectations, ensure transparent communication channels, and foster a culture where team members hold themselves and each other to high standards. Proactively address challenges, recognize achievements with precision, and prioritize continuous professional development. By cultivating a professional environment grounded in accountability, we elevate the overall effectiveness of our healthcare teams.