One of the conundrums of being a leader is balancing fostering a friendly, warm environment against putting too much pressure on employees to get more done at the right standard.
We have all experienced a staff member that takes it easy, while everyone works hard around them. It’s frustrating and unfair to dedicated workers. Often, leaders will tell me that they don’t want to 'nag' people, leaving those who like to slack off plenty of freedom.
When we create psychological safety, where people know they can take risks and be themselves, without punishment, people thrive. What some leaders don’t realise is that creating a friendly, safe team culture combined with accountability creates high performance. This transforms a team operating in the Abatement Zone into Achievement.
In the Achievement Zone Model (picture above), the Abatement Zone is when leaders create psychological safety, but don’t hold their employees accountable for excellence. In this environment, employees have no incentive to stretch themselves, be proactive or creative. You could say that the psychological safety is a pseudo version. People are safe to not perform - they can miss their KPIs and deadlines and face no consequences. The result is that their performance is abating - energy is spent on maintaining the status quo. Employees believe they are doing a good job and have no desire to improve or even think differently.
When leaders are uncomfortable improving themselves and subsequently pulling people up for poor performance, team performance declines slowly over time. Leaders in the Abatement Zone are the ones who become stressed out, as team members will escalate problems to their boss to solve, only work 9-5pm and lack the motivation to move beyond their task list. The Abatement Zone is where ideas go to die, people coast, problems don’t get solved, deadlines don’t get reached and where groupthink reigns supreme.
Interestingly, psychological safety maybe high, but trust tends to be low in this team for some team members.
That’s because psychological safety is experienced at the group level. People tend to all agree on whether their team environment is safe. It’s temporary and immediate. By contrast, they won’t all agree on whether they can trust their team. That’s because trust refers to the interactions between individuals. What trust means or whether it is present differs for each person. It depends on the context and whether people, or the organisation itself can be relied upon.
Getting (and staying) in the Achievement Zone
So how do you balance both psychological safety and accountability? Through a team leader who is always working on improving themselves and acting as a role model for others.
Inspiring teams to perform in the Achievement Zone requires leaders who have the skills to create a mentally healthy, supportive environment and who aren’t afraid to push people out of their comfort zones. It’s not easy. It requires leaders who work on improving their interpersonal and intrapersonal skills, allowing their technical skills to lessen in importance as they allow others to shine. In other words, they have the self-awareness and skills to build trust in their team - so employees trust them to do the right thing and can trust each other.
This involves a team leader who challenges direct reports to improve and believes in them. The majority of leaders approve small incremental improvements to goals. A leader in this zone treats employees like athletes pushing them to continually improve - breaking their best records, not by a few degrees but through dramatic improvement.
Achievement Zone leaders foster a supportive environment where employees learn and work together, focus on continuous improvement and explore exciting new possibilities. Everyone understands that it’s not about individual success, but team success. After all, people tend to not spontaneously stretch themselves, they need the support of a leader who fosters the right environment to grow and learn. In this environment, people thrive on the autonomy to work how they want and contribute to high level decisions.
You will find leaders in this zone have high expectations that actually encourage employees to be the best. Disappointing the leader is often something that people will do anything to avoid. It’s not because they will be punished - it’s because their leader’s validation and approval means a lot to them. After all, we all want to be admired, by someone we admire.
It’s not about feeling comfortable
Leaders can often confuse being a trusted leader with being a nice leader. They feel that pulling people up on poor quality work or behaviours will contribute to an unhappy and uncomfortable work environment. While that can be true, over time it can create a poor performing team culture that operates in apathy. A team zone that is much harder to turn around.
The truth is that it is far more unbearable for team members when a boss tacitly allows team members to do substandard work. It gives permission for your whole team to underperform, while reducing your reputation as a leader.
Creating a culture of accountability that feels safe is the best solution. This requires the leader to be accountable and confidently hold people accountable for results - all in a supportive environment. After all, you can’t have accountability if people don’t trust you.
Marie-Claire Ross is a speaker, trainer and coach at Trustologie® who helps leaders and organisations improve trust in teams. You can discover more tips on The Achievement Zone in her book Trusted To Thrive: How Leaders Create Connected and Accountable Teams. Learn more by visiting https://www.marie-claireross.com
