Ep 468 | Want to Introduce More Accountability in Your Org? Follow These 6 Steps

Thank you for joining me today. It's Brian Gubernick, and welcome to the No Days Off podcast, where we believe that every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. Today I want to talk about introducing more accountability in your organization. As we, as we kick off this new year, many of us are looking at our businesses and saying, what changes do we have to make in order to accomplish our goals in 2025? One of those things may be to introduce a greater degree of accountability within our organizations. When I think around accountability, I am thinking about holding accountable to specific tasks, specific actions that must be taken by your people in order for them to be successful in their businesses. They're independent businesses within your world. And as a result, the byproduct of that is a greater overall business. If you haven't run an accountable organization, one where this accountability, this cadence of accountability has existed before, if you haven't run one before, you may want to introduce it, but there's steps that I think you have to take in order to do it. You can't just show up on a Monday and say, "All right, starting the day," Everybody is going to be held to a certain standard. Sure, you can try to do that, but the odds of it working out are not that high. Instead, I think there's certain steps you have to take, certain things you have to build as you're introducing this accountability such that it takes effect, it's welcomed by your people, and it ultimately leads to where you want to go. So, what are these 6 steps? These are my 6 steps that I think you need to, to to follow again in introducing accountability. Number 1, I think you have to define these clear expectations, these goals. In other words, define what you're actually going to measure. So, get very clear on the measurable KPIs, the key performance indicators. Maybe it's deals done in a month. Maybe it's certain quantity of calls made. Maybe it's something to do with lead follow-up if you're running a sales organization. You've got to set measurable KPIs and you've got to align the goals with individuals' roles and team objectives. Everybody has to understand the why behind the accountability, behind the measurables, and how they tie out to the goals. So number one, if you're going to start holding accountable, make sure you're very clear on what you're in fact holding accountable to. Let's make sure we're clear. There's no subjective analysis here. We want objective, very clearly defined standards. So, if I'm the business owner, I may sit down and map out exactly what it may be and then have the conversations around the standards, the expectations, and how they align to goals. So, number 1, define clear expectations and goals. Number 2, you've got to implement what I would call regular check-ins, meaning that what's the frequency? That you're going to have around these accountability conversations? Is it weekly? Is it biweekly? Is it likely— is it done in one-on-one meetings? Is it done in a group setting? How are we reviewing progress? What's the cadence look like there? Not only what's the cadence look like, but what's the agenda? What's the structure to those meetings? So again, number 1, define clear expectations and goals. Number 2, implement regular check-ins. What's the cadence? What's the agenda? Number 3, I think the 3rd thing you have to do in introducing accountability to your organization, make sure you create a transparent system. What I'm really referring to is the use of dashboards or other tools where things can be tracked and performance, performance can be shared. How can we see the metrics? How can they become more visible? How can we have a culture that has more data-driven decisions, right? So we want to make sure that we're clear around the tracking. So not just define the expectations and the goals, not just have a regular cadence, a cadence, you know, implementation of regular check-ins, but make sure the system that you're using, the scoreboard, the dashboard, is a transparent one. Number 4, I think you've got to recognize and reward accountability. Make sure that you're always tying out the success that your organization has to the accountability that's been introduced. So maybe that looks like publicly recognizing team members who meet or exceed expectations. Maybe it's providing meaningful rewards or, you know, maybe it's bonuses or perks or some sort of team celebration. So, if you've number 1, defined your clear expectations and goals, and number 2, implemented regular check-ins, and then number 3, created a transparent system, number 4 would be to recognize and reward the accountability that's in place. Number 5, when introducing accountability to your organization, you've got to use this accountability to, in my opinion, provide constructive feedback. So, if you're addressing, say, underperformance, make sure you're doing it promptly, but doing it with solutions and not just criticism. Take a collaborative approach to develop, you know, improvement plans. Now, you're collaborative until the point that, you know, it's no longer working. Then, you may have to be more direct and prescriptive. But the objective of the accountability isn't to necessarily just hold accountable to a job. Is to review metrics, see if they're— see if they are on a path, the achievement of those objectives are on a path to the goal, and then provide constructive feedback if and where they're not. And even if they are, by the way, on the path, you can still use that as an opportunity to provide feedback to maybe even push past the goal, push past the accountability or the expectations. Okay? So, that'd be number 5. Number 6, and I think maybe the biggest one here, lead by example. If you're going to introduce accountability into your world, in your organization, you're going to have to model that accountability in your own actions and in your own decisions. You've got to be transparent, in my opinion, about your own goals and your own challenges, and you've got to show up and be willing to be held accountable. Maybe not, you know, verbally meeting with someone who's holding you accountable in front of your team per se, but put your goal out there Show how you're working and striving to meet the KPIs that line up with those goals and lead by example. So the 6 things I think you've got to do to introduce accountability, just to restate it one more time, is number 1, define clear expectations and goals for your organization. Make sure it's, you know, these, these KPIs are measurable and that they align with the goals. Number 2, implement regular check-ins. Have, have a cadence of weekly or biweekly one-on-ones, whatever it may be, and make sure there's an agenda that you're following. Number 3, make sure that system that you create is a transparent one. That's dashboards, that's scoreboards, whatever it may be. Number 4, recognize and reward accountability. That may be public recognition, that may be providing meaningful rewards. Tie out the accountability to the success. Number 5, provide constructive feedback. So, address underperformance with solutions. Not just criticism, and be more collaborative for as long as you can be before you may have to turn to a more prescriptive approach. And then lastly, lead by example. Model the accountability that you expect of others. So those are the 6 steps that I really think— now there's probably more to it than that, but I want you to think around those 6 steps in terms of building accountability within your organization. The last thing I'm going to say is, is within my own organizations. When I think around accountability, I hold a little less accountable to the actual results and a lot more accountable to the effort required to get the results. See, I'm a firm believer that putting in effort requires no talent whatsoever. Converting to actual results does involve talent, does involve skill. And sure, we can hold accountable to an extent to, to development of that skill. Maybe that's attending meetings or attending training. But I lean more heavily towards effort-based metrics. Give me a guy or girl that's willing to do the work, and it's my job to train that individual up. The dangerous guy or girl within your organization is one that's really skilled, really trained, but unwilling to put in the effort. That's someone that oftentimes may undermine what it is you stand for. So, 6 things to think about in terms of implementing accountability in your world. I'm sure there's some more to that, but those are the core 6 for me. So my challenge for you today is to think around your organization. Do you in fact have the accountability within that organization that you desire? If you do not, then odds are there's probably one, if not more than one, of those, those 6 steps I outlined that maybe you haven't taken action around. And my challenge for you is to take action immediately. Here we are, beginning of the year. It's time to set the tone. And in taking action around these accountability steps, you are putting things into play. You are taking steps and in doing so, getting closer to your goals. That's all I have for you today. The No Days Off Podcast. Thank you so much for listening. And remember, every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. So let's get after it.