How to Hold Virtual Professionals Accountable from Far Distances!

Hold Virtual Professionals Accountable: SIMPLE

Set Expectations:

• The success of any team comes down to one thing: How well it organizes its members to focus on and work toward the same purpose.
• The virtual assistants need to know what is expected of them before they can be held accountable for anything.
• The more clearly the expectations and goals are set up front, the less time will be wasted later clarifying – or worse, arguing about –  what was really expected.

Invite Commitment:

• Just because your VA knows what to do, doesn’t mean they will do it. After goals and expectations are set, virtual assistants need to commit to achieving them.
• Virtual Professionals are more likely to do this when they understand two things: how the goals will benefit them personally, and how the goals will help move the team forward.
• Once this connection is made, they are more likely to buy into the goals, and actually welcome you holding them accountable for the results.

Measure Progress:

• Information is needed to hold your virtual assistants accountable. Measure their ongoing performance and gauge whether or not they meet the goals and expectations to which they had previously committed.
• Goals are only measurable when they are quantified. Measure the results and compare them to the VA’s goals to discover the gaps that require further attention.

Provide Feedback:

• Feedback won’t solve problems by itself, but it will open the door for problem-solving discussions and follow-up actions.
• The virtual assistant needs feedback to do a good job and improve in areas where performance is falling short of expectations. Most of the time, giving objective, behavioral feedback is all it takes.  Setting expectations followed by quality feedback is the backbone of holding someone accountable for results.

Link to Consequences:

• Sometimes virtual assistants need a little external motivation to live up to their commitments. When they struggle to reach their goals, they can be helped by administering appropriate consequences.

Evaluate Effectiveness:

• Review how the process has been handled.
• Put a systematic and consistent method in place and you’ll find that when people are held accountable for the work that must get done, it gets done.

By following this S.I.M.P.L.E. method of holding your virtual assistants accountable, you shouldn’t have to worry about whether or not they’re getting their work done.

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