How do you hold remote teams accountable?

For best-selling author Patrick Lencioni, accountability is one of the most difficult issues to address on a team.

Why? ‘Because it’s one thing to argue. It’s another thing to go to somebody and say, ‘I don’t think you’re doing it enough,’‘ Lencioni says.

He addresses accountability in his book, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, as a ‘fear of conflict,’ where a manager or leader’s desires for artificial harmony stifles productive ideological conflict within the team.

But by building trust within team members, Lencioni says, leaders can make sure expectations are clear and can be met in a timely fashion.

In this clip, Lencioni explains the challenge of accountability when a team works remotely and how to build that trust over Zoom calls and emails.

This article was originally published in the Vistage Research Center.