A sneaky but clever device for parents to extract the best behavior from their children is a Santa Cam — a realistic (but fake) camera that reminds kids Santa is watching them. It probably only works during this time of year, but it could do the trick.
There is no such thing as a “supervisor cam” so supervisors need to be more intentional about holding their teams accountable for performance. If you let deadlines pass or tasks go undone without follow-up or consequences, it signals to your staff that the actions don’t matter, or at least timeliness doesn’t. To establish the expectations, you may need to do some reminders (“The budget is due next week, see me if you have questions but I expect it by end of day Tuesday”) but by golly, if that budget isn’t there when you walk in Wednesday morning, you need to be on the phone.
If you want others to be accountable, you need to be clear about what success looks like and address it when someone doesn’t comply. Expecting good behavior without external motivation is an unrealistic ask from most people. Let them know that Santa is watching.
