When Does Coaching End and Accountability Begin?

Sep 24

One of the harder lessons in leadership is recognizing that supporting someone and holding them accountable aren't competing responsibilities.

THE CULTURE PRESCRIPTION™ | THE LEADERSHIP JOURNAL

By Sharra Schewee-Blair

I believe in developing people.

If you've read much of my work, you probably already know that.

I've spent a significant part of my leadership career looking for potential in employees, creating opportunities for growth, and helping people recognize capabilities they may not have seen in themselves.

Watching someone develop confidence, pursue new opportunities, or accomplish something they once believed was beyond their reach is one of the most rewarding parts of leadership for me.

But there's another side to developing people that doesn't receive nearly as much attention.

What happens when the coaching isn't working?

What happens when you've provided guidance, clarified expectations, offered additional support, and given someone opportunities to improve, but the same concerns continue?

At what point does your responsibility to develop an individual intersect with your responsibility to the rest of the team?

I've learned that this is one of the more complicated parts of leadership.

And I don't believe the answer is simply to coach more or become more demanding.

Sometimes the most important leadership skill is recognizing what the situation actually requires.

Not Every Performance Problem Is a Coaching Problem

When an employee isn't meeting expectations, I believe our first responsibility is to understand why.

That sounds straightforward until you consider how many different factors can influence performance.

Does the employee understand what's expected?

Have they received appropriate training?

Do they have the tools, resources, and time necessary to perform their responsibilities?

Is there a process or operational barrier affecting their performance?

Are expectations being applied consistently?

Or does the employee understand the expectations, possess the necessary capabilities, and continue making choices that don't align with them?

Those situations shouldn't automatically receive the same response.

An employee who lacks training may need education and practice.

Someone who understands the work but lacks confidence may benefit from coaching and encouragement.

An employee facing an operational barrier may need the leader to address a problem that additional coaching cannot resolve.

And when expectations are understood, reasonable support has been provided, and performance concerns continue, a more formal accountability process may become appropriate.

The challenge is learning to recognize the difference.

The Risk of Coaching Without Clear Expectations

I think leaders sometimes confuse being supportive with avoiding uncomfortable conversations.

I've seen how easy it can be to approach a performance concern indirectly because we don't want to discourage someone or damage a relationship.

We provide reminders. We offer suggestions. We encourage improvement.

But we don't always communicate clearly that the employee's performance is falling short of an established expectation.

Then we're surprised when the same issue continues.

From the employee's perspective, they may believe they're receiving helpful suggestions rather than being told that a performance concern requires improvement.

That's not necessarily an employee problem.

Sometimes it's a leadership communication problem.

If an expectation matters, we need to communicate it clearly.

That includes explaining what needs to change, why it matters, what support is available, and how improvement will be evaluated.

Coaching shouldn't leave employees guessing about whether they're meeting expectations.

And accountability shouldn't arrive as a surprise after months of conversations that never clearly identified the concern.

Compassion and Accountability Can Exist Together

One of the most important lessons I've learned is that understanding someone's circumstances doesn't automatically change the expectations associated with their responsibilities.

People experience difficult situations.

They have personal challenges, competing obligations, and circumstances we may know very little about.

As leaders, we should approach those situations with compassion and an appropriate willingness to explore available resources or accommodations through established organizational processes.

But compassion doesn't require us to ignore performance concerns or create inconsistent expectations.

In healthcare, this distinction can be particularly important.

Employees depend on one another to perform their responsibilities reliably. When expectations aren't consistently addressed, the effects can extend beyond an individual employee.

Other team members may begin compensating for unfinished work, managing repeated disruptions, or questioning whether expectations apply equally.

Over time, that can influence trust in leadership.

I've come to believe that being fair to an individual also requires us to consider our responsibilities to everyone affected by the situation.

Sometimes that means providing additional support.

Sometimes it means establishing clearer boundaries.

And sometimes it means following the appropriate accountability process.

None of those responsibilities eliminates the importance of treating people with dignity.

Don't Let Your Investment in Someone Cloud Your Judgment

This is a leadership challenge I think deserves more attention.

When you've invested considerable time in developing someone, it can be difficult to acknowledge that your efforts aren't producing the improvement you hoped to see.

You recognize their potential.

You remember the progress they've made.

You may understand circumstances that help explain some of their challenges.

And because you genuinely want them to succeed, you keep looking for another way to help.

I understand that instinct.

Developing people is one of the parts of leadership I value most.

But potential and performance aren't interchangeable.

Recognizing what someone could become doesn't eliminate our responsibility to address what they're currently doing.

And sometimes continuing the same coaching approach isn't particularly helpful to the employee.

If expectations remain unclear or consequences are repeatedly postponed, we may unintentionally prevent someone from fully understanding the seriousness of the situation.

Supporting people also means being willing to communicate difficult truths.

The goal should never be to catch someone doing something wrong or rush toward disciplinary action.

It should be to understand the situation, provide appropriate opportunities for improvement, and respond consistently when expectations aren't met.

Accountability Is Also a Leadership Development Skill

We spend considerable time teaching new leaders how to communicate, coach, motivate, and engage employees.

Those are important capabilities.

But I believe we also need to prepare leaders for the discomfort that comes with accountability.

New managers frequently inherit relationships with people who were previously their peers.

They may worry about damaging those relationships, being perceived as unfair, or losing the trust they've worked to establish.

Some respond by avoiding difficult conversations.

Others become overly rigid because they believe authority requires demonstrating control.

Neither approach necessarily produces the outcome they're hoping for.

Developing sound judgment requires learning how to balance relationships, expectations, organizational processes, and individual circumstances.

That's difficult to master through classroom education alone.

Leaders benefit from opportunities to practice difficult conversations, reflect on their decisions, receive feedback, and seek guidance when situations become complicated.

They also need to recognize when a concern requires involvement from human resources, employee relations, compliance, or another appropriate organizational resource.

A mentor can help a manager think through a challenging situation.

But mentoring shouldn't replace established organizational procedures or the responsibilities of the manager's direct leader.

This distinction is particularly important when developing frontline supervisors.

We want them to become confident decision-makers without encouraging them to operate beyond their authority or expertise.

What Does The Culture Prescription Have to Do With Accountability?

The Culture Prescription™ is built around five interconnected leadership principles: CONNECT, VALUE, CLARIFY, IGNITE, and LEAVE BETTER.

I don't view these principles as a formula that produces an automatic answer to every leadership problem.

I view them as a way to think more intentionally about our responsibilities.

In conversations about performance and accountability, three of those principles deserve particular attention.

VALUE reminds us to recognize the person while addressing the performance.

Employees deserve to be treated with dignity, even when difficult conversations or formal accountability measures become necessary.

CLARIFY reminds us that people deserve to understand expectations and consequences.

We shouldn't confuse employees with vague feedback or leave them uncertain about what needs to improve.

LEAVE BETTER challenges us to consider the broader effects of our leadership decisions.

Are we helping the individual understand what success requires?

Are we maintaining fair and consistent expectations?

Are we protecting the working environment for the rest of the team?

And are we addressing the situation in a way that reflects our organization's values and established processes?

These questions don't eliminate the difficulty of accountability.

But they encourage us to approach it with greater intention.

When Coaching Isn't Enough

I don't believe there's a universal number of coaching conversations that tells us when accountability should begin.

The appropriate response depends on the nature of the concern, organizational expectations, applicable policies, the employee's circumstances, and the potential consequences of continued performance problems.

Some situations require immediate action or escalation.

Others allow opportunities for additional development and improvement.

That's why leadership judgment matters.

And it's why I believe leadership development programs should do more than teach managers how to conduct a coaching conversation.

They should help managers understand how to recognize different performance challenges, communicate expectations, involve appropriate organizational resources, and make thoughtful decisions within their responsibilities.

Through The Culture Prescription™, I'm developing leadership education, coaching, and mentoring approaches that connect these skills with the realities of everyday operational leadership.

Because the difficult part of leadership isn't always knowing what good leadership looks like.

Sometimes it's recognizing what good leadership requires when the available options aren't particularly comfortable.

A Question for Leaders

If you're currently coaching an employee whose performance hasn't improved, consider whether you've clearly communicated the concern.

Does the employee understand the expectation?

Have you identified potential barriers and provided appropriate support?

Have you explained how improvement will be evaluated?

And have you considered whether your current approach is helping the employee progress or simply postponing a necessary conversation?

These aren't always easy questions.

But they're important ones.

I've learned that caring about people doesn't mean protecting them from every uncomfortable conversation.

Sometimes it means respecting them enough to have the conversation clearly, fairly, and at the appropriate time.

Coaching and accountability aren't opposing leadership responsibilities.

They're both part of developing people, maintaining expectations, and creating a working environment where everyone has an opportunity to succeed.

And knowing how to balance them is something we should continue developing throughout our leadership careers.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Sharra Schewee-Blair is the founder of The Culture Prescription™, an author, and a healthcare operations leader with more than 20 years of leadership experience.

Her professional background includes ambulatory healthcare operations, frontline leadership development, mentoring emerging professionals, and supporting organizational initiatives focused on leadership development, workplace culture, and high reliability.

She is the author of The Culture Prescription: Leadership Practices for Connecting, Valuing, Clarifying, Igniting, and Leaving People Better Than You Found Them

Through The Culture Prescription™, Sharra develops practical leadership education, mentoring, coaching, and organizational consulting resources that connect established leadership principles with the realities of operational leadership.

Sharra Schewee-Blair https://www.cultureprescription.com