Blog

In a field like Information Technology, the ability to build accountability among reports is crucial for IT managers.  While IT recruiters and IT staffing firms will provide IT contractors who work well independently in their IT jobs, there are a few key strategies that managers should employ.

1. Start a tradition of sharing major achievements with everyone.  This might include awards or simply recognizing employees for accomplishments via company-wide emails.  Whatever it is, you’ll create incentive for IT consultants to raise their own work-level to match that of their peers.  If positive recognition is obviously up for grabs, people will always work for it.
2. Have reports document their own progress each day or over the course of a project.  Consider checking it on at least a quarterly basis.  That documentation will be enough to create accountability without you actively micromanaging them.  This will create accountability that’s not born of fear or resentment, which is key. (These things as motivation tend to hurt productivity.)
3. Consider having meetings to start the day or week in which team and individual priorities are laid out.  The best meetings will be the ones in which team members report their own priorities and plans, rather than a manager meting them out.  Reports will feel empowered and may even get excited about their to-do lists as they tell them to the group.