PMO Results: Better people results through better people accountability

1. Get a real commitment! Know the difference between a real commitment and a brush-off. Beware of best effort generalities such as "I'll try", or "you know I will give it my best shot", or "you can count on me to get it done." Get a specific commitment from the performing resource in measurable terms such as "how much, by when" to do the work promised.
2. Put commitments in writing. When you reach an oral agreement, put it in writing. This serves to both clarify the agreement that you have reached and to set a permanent reminder or expectation for the commitment. Often times, people tend to think that when they promise things verbally that it is okay to not totally live up to, and honor, the commitment. A written confirmation will emphasize the seriousness of the commitment.
3. Involve the people that have the authority. Confirm with the manager or supervisor of your performing resource that the time you need from the resource and the work to be performed by the resource is understood and agreed to. This establishes a relationship with the performing resource's supervisor and reduces the chances that the supervisor will inadvertently assign too much other work to the performing resource.
4. Be specific regarding how much, by when. Often, when resources are unable to complete assigned project tasks, it is because they had a misunderstanding of the results you wanted, the time frame you needed, or the effort needed to produce those results. Be specific regarding what you want, when you want it, and how much work effort it will take. Clarity enables accountability.
5. Inform others about the person's commitment. Don't keep commitments, especially shared resource commitments, a secret. Tell others about them. No one wants to have their professional reputation put at risk, so the more people know about the commitment that you have from a shared resource, the more likely that resource will be to ensure that their commitment to you is met. Conversely, if only the two of you know about the commitment, it may not seem as critical to your performing resource and it may seem easier to break.
6. Inspect what you expect. Project team participants need to know what you expect of them and when you expect it and the expectations need to be specific and measurable, not generalities. You must inspect what you expect regularly as your follow up sends a clear message that you expect the performing resource to follow through at their end. When you inspect, be mindful to both confirm that which has been accomplished and to offer or determine any areas of help or information that are needed to finish tasks.
7. Continually stress the importance of the task. Usually, during the project kickoff meeting the project manager presents the overall project plan, discusses the details of the project tasks, and stresses the importance of project and tasks and their critical path. However, as the project progresses, team members can often think that their particular task is not so important or critical to the project timeline resulting in missed deadlines or waiting to the last moment to finish work. Continually stress the importance of the task as team members will only view the task as important as you do.
8. Immediately confront poor performance. Don’t allow poor performance to continue. Immediately confront performance that is not meeting agreed to expectations whether this is poor quality work, work that is incomplete, or work that is late. Rather than looking the other way or hoping the project team member’s performance will come around, immediately step in to get things back on track. Take the appropriate actions to ensure the project team member can actually do the task, has the time and skills to deliver what has been committed. If necessary, escalate to functional management especially if they are the cause of the problem or part of the problem.
9. Immediately praise good performance. When your team member delivers the promised work on time or ahead of schedule, always acknowledge that good performance. Tell them and their functional manager how much you appreciate their efforts and how important their contribution was to the project’s success.
10. Act as if you have the authority. Often times, project managers have very little real authority in terms of reporting structure, or budget, or even being part of the leadership team’s decision making process. But, in fact, project managers do have authority. When a person commits to do work for you, when a functional manager commits resources to you, when an executive commits their time and attention to you, you as project manager have authority over all of that. And, you have the right to exercise that authority.

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