Accountability. It’s a word that can make people squirm, but if you want to see real transformation in your business, you need to embrace it.
Today on The Chris LoCurto Show, we’re unpacking how accountability creates clarity, aligns teams, and strengthens leadership.
We’ll cover the essential tools you need to build a culture of accountability and walk through practical strategies to implement it effectively.
So if you’re ready to learn how to hold your team accountable in a way that fosters growth—without feeling like the bad guy—this episode is for you. Let’s dive in.
Episode Timestamps and Key Takeaways
Accountability Aligns Teams to Vision, Mission, and Strategy (00:05:47)
Without alignment, your team will be scattered and unproductive. We break down how accountability ensures that every team member, from the CEO to the front desk, is moving toward a common mission and vision. Plus, we discuss why a lack of alignment often leads to wasted time and resources.
Clarity Through KRAs and KPIs (00:12:07)
Do your people actually know what success looks like in their role? KRAs (Key Result Areas) and KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) provide crystal-clear expectations.
We explain how these tools eliminate confusion and help leaders assess performance effectively. You’ll also hear real-world examples of businesses that transformed their results by implementing these strategies.
The Power of Structure and Organization (00:20:19)
Accountability thrives in a structured environment. We explore why using project management tools, defined meeting rhythms, and streamlined processes lead to better performance and fewer bottlenecks. If you’re tired of miscommunication and repeated mistakes, this section will give you the game plan to fix it.
High-Quality Communication Builds Trust and Clarity (00:23:35)
The number one issue in every business? Poor communication. Accountability isn’t just about setting expectations—it’s about ensuring that communication happens consistently and effectively. We discuss how clear, direct communication strengthens trust and keeps everyone on the same page.
Next-Level Leadership LIVE Event 2025 (00:26:46)
If you’re overwhelmed, if you feel like you’re carrying the weight of your business on your shoulders, this event is for you. From April 2nd-4th, we’ll equip you with the tools and strategies to lead smarter—not harder.
Learn how to create a business that thrives without you having to micromanage every detail. Get details at chrislocurto.com/liveevents.
Coaching, Training, and Supporting Success (00:30:25)
Accountability isn’t about punishing people—it’s about setting them up for success. Investing in training and coaching ensures your team has the tools to meet expectations. We share how ongoing coaching, especially for sales teams, leads to significant performance improvements and higher morale.
Action Items to Build Accountability (00:34:32)
Document KRAs & KPIs – Ensure every team member has clear goals and expectations.
Implement Regular Check-ins – Meet one-on-one with team members and review performance.
Use a Project Management Tool – Keep tasks visible and transparent.
Invest in Coaching – Provide ongoing training and support for growth.
Foster Open Communication – Encourage honest discussions and feedback.
Additional Resources (00:36:29)
Episode 367 | Leading High Levels of Communication and Accountability – A deep dive into how DISC personality profiles improve communication and accountability.
Episode 486 | The Risks and Rewards of Accountability – Learn how to hold others accountable while fostering a culture of trust and success.
Conclusion (00:37:21)
Accountability isn’t about micromanaging—it’s about clarity, alignment, and empowerment. When your team understands their roles, expectations, and goals, they perform at a higher level. Start implementing these strategies today and watch your business transform.
If this episode resonated with you, hit that like button, leave a review, and share it with others who need to hear it. Take this information, change your leadership, change your business, and change your life. See you next time!
614 | How Accountability Creates Better Teamwork
Introduction (00:00:00)
On today's episode of the Chris LoCurto show, we're unpacking the power of accountability. How it drives alignment, builds clarity, and transforms teamwork.
So get ready to learn about actionable strategies to take your team to the next level that is coming up next.
Welcome to the Chris LoCurto show where we discuss leadership and life and discover that business is what you do, not who you are.
Welcome to the show, folks. I hope you're having a fabulous day wherever you are.
Today we are talking about one of my favorite topics and one of the toughest topics for people to implement, whether that be in personal life and business, whatever.
We're talking about accountability and this is a tough one.
So listen, if you're just not tough, go ahead and change the station now, right?
But if you are somebody who wants to see great change in your business, and I mean great change, then stay tuned because we're going to dive into some very, very important pieces of accountability.
Now, why is accountability so tough? Well, I will tell you, I think one of the biggest reasons is because accountability can -it doesn't have to- it can come with conflict, it can come with tough conversations.
And so for a lot of folks, we just don't want to deal with that stuff, right? Most of us don't like conflict.
Most of us don't enjoy having tough conversations. There are a few out there, there's a few that actually like it and look forward to it.
I am not one of those people. But here's what I have come to understand over the decades that I've been doing this.
Accountability is one of my best friends when it comes to work, when it comes to running a business, when it comes to running a team, when it comes to running a project, accountability.
And I'm an 88 S for all of you that have done the DISC, if you have not done the personality profiles in your business, get it done.
Go to chrislocurto.com/store. Get it done. Make it happen. You'll be blown away at how it will change the communication inside of your business.
So I'm a, I'm an 88 S. I'm a high S. And I'm somebody who doesn't like conflict. I just don't. But God has seen fit that I would have tons of conflict in my life, tons of tough situations and tough conversations.
And coming from a pretty jacked up background, God saw fit that I wouldn't understand conflict and be able to put tools in place to walk through conflict or to walk through accountability.
That's why we do what we do, this whole business is based on discovering how to overcome junk, crap, difficulty and walk folks through it.
Walk people through it. That is why we do what we do. So I can tell you that the stuff that we are going to hit today, these are great tools.
If you're somebody who's a High S, a High C, even High Is, and you don't like conflict and you're not fond of tough conversations, then just stick around and listen to the things that we go through.
Because as we explore how healthy accountability kind of creates that culture where everyone knows their roles, they understand the mission, they collaborate, they're effective, they're trying to achieve goals, team goals, project goals, whatever it is.
As we go through these things, you're going to see that this is going to be incredibly valuable to you. The key is you have to. And this is, this is the big word that I want you to focus on.
You have to practice. Do not expect that you're going to be phenomenal at accountability tonight, tomorrow, next week, you have to practice accountability.
You have to put the tools in place. That's number one, is you got to put the tools in place and then you have to practice it. And the more you practice it in the beginning, it'll be tough, but the more you practice it, the easier it becomes.
So once again, as a High S, as somebody who doesn't like conflict, these tools that I'm teaching you, these are things that we have discovered over the years to make life so much easier.
It allows you to focus on the accountability instead of the conflict itself. You just keep bringing people back to the accountability. Well, now hold on. This is what we agreed you would do. Now hold on.
This is what your KRA says. Now this is. Let's take a look at this. And that way you don't have to get lost because the big fear is that you're gonna get lost in a conversation.
Somebody's gonna be running their mouth really fast, you know, saying things and putting you on the defensive and throwing people under the bus, and you're not gonna be able to process fast enough.
That is okay. Don't worry about that. Whatever, Chris, of course I'm gonna worry about that. I'm telling you, don't worry about that.
If you focus on the things I'm telling you, then you just keep bringing em right back to the accountability. It drives em nuts. Absolutely drives them nuts, but it, it also absolutely works.
So where do we start? Well, we're going to go through a handful of key points here.
Accountability Aligns Teams to Vision, Mission, and Strategy (00:05:47)
And the first thing is, is. I want you to understand that when you have solid accountability, it aligns your team, or your teams, whatever, to your vision, to your mission, into your strategy.
Now people get messed up on this all the time, so let's just use the definitions that we use for mission, vision and strategy. Mission is your purpose for existence. Why does your company exist? That is mission.
You can have one mission. You should not have multiple missions. Vision is the next destination or destinations you're going to. You can have 700 of those, right?
We're working on a couple of visions, a couple of destinations ourselves right now. And as we accomplish them, we'll add another one and then we'll add another one. We'll add another one, right? That's, that's how our business just cycles. Believe it or not.
Strategy is how you get to that destination. It's all the steps on how you get there. So those are the things that we are talking about when I'm saying aligning your team to mission, vision and strategy.
So the key thing here is that healthy. Healthy. Circle, star, highlight the word healthy. I know you're taking copious notes right now.
Healthy accountability ensures that everyone, everyone, even your leadership team, even the person who answers the phones, even the CEO, the owner.
Healthy accountability ensures that everyone is aligned with the organization's mission, vision and strategy. So here's what I want you to see.
If you have anybody on your team that is not aligned with your mission, your purpose for existence, then I'm telling you, you have a person who's there for a paycheck, you have a person who's there for a job. It's a waste of time.
There's a lot of companies, a lot of, a lot of folks, a lot of you all that are listening to this right now because you don't have a clearly understood and bought in mission.
You have some folks that are there for the paycheck, right? That's okay. We just need to fix that. We need to work on getting a quality mission statement.
Something that's very purposeful, right? Something that's more important than just showing up for a paycheck. When we do, we need to make sure that everybody aligns with that purpose.
What about the vision? Well, this is the destination that we are heading to. So we have to make sure if the company is moving in a direction.
And by the way, I highly suggest that you have one laser focused destination that you're going to. Unfortunately, many companies do what we suggest against, which is they have a shotgun approach, they have teams and silos.
And people going in many directions. And unfortunately, you are burning through your resources, you are spending way more money, you're losing resources for people to go in multiple directions.
What you want is you want them moving in a laser focused direction. And that way you're utilizing your resources to the best of your ability.
The crazy thing is now we have a very focused team, very focused team. And because of that, we have less team members on our team than most companies would have trying to accomplish what we're accomplishing.
Because we're so focused, we use our resources incredibly well, we're very efficient, we accomplish a lot with a smaller group than most companies would would need, right?
So if people are aligned with the vision, if you have healthy accountability, and that's not just accountability to the person, but their role, their careers, the processes, every bit.
If all of that is aligned in a healthy way, then a fantastic thing happens. You spend less money and you accomplish your vision way faster, right?
You, you burn through less resources and you accomplish your vision way faster. What about the strategy? Right?
If we're trying to head to that vision, we need a strategy. We, we need these steps put in place.
You know, obviously you've heard me talk a ton about StratPlan of how we're going to get to this next destination if people aren't aligned. And I would say with your StratPlan, right?
Let's say, well, let's say we just walked through an entire StratPlan, created this, you know, 12 month process that people are going to be working on and it's got a great destination.
If everybody on your team isn't somehow aligned to that StratPlan, that means they're not heading in the same direction as the people who are.
Because that StratPlan, that strategy is moving in the direction of your next vision, right?
Well, Chris, you said we could have multiple visions. Yes, but keep in mind they really should be knocking one off. You know, as you knock one off, you, you're heading towards the next one.
We shouldn't be going in a shotgun approach to five different directions. We should be moving in the same direction right now. You can have little mini visions of that.
I don't suggest calling those visions, I suggest calling those goals. But the point is, is we as a company should be moving toward one destination, right?
Especially the folks that are listening to this show. Your business probably isn't massive where you've got multiple, very large divisions that, you know, could be moving in different directions and still accomplishing the, the overall goal.
So don't think that you should be operating like a massive business. You shouldn't focus on one destination. Get there, get there well and use accountability to do so.
If everybody in your business is aligned with that vision, you will be blown away at how well you get to that vision, how well you accomplish the strategy, and how much you do not burn through all of your resources getting there.
So how do we get to that place that we are holding people accountable?
Clarity Through KRAs and KPIs (00:12:07)
Well, key point number two is getting clarity through two very important pieces. Now, KRAs and KPIs, documented KRAs.
KRAs are Key Result Areas, right? And KPIs are key performance indicators. Right?
These provide clear ex-- well, if you've done them well. If you've done them well. KRAs are very difficult to do well. It takes a lot of practice.
But that's why we have a huge lesson on that because it's a difficult thing to get done. But when you do what you have is expected results.
So this is not a job description that is just blown up. It's not what. You can have some pieces of job description in there, but that's not our goal. Our goal is having a job description explaining to somebody how to do the job.
But if they do the job really well, then this is the expected result. This is what it should look like. So we usually have, you know, in any role, 3, maybe up to 5 KRAs that helps a person realize what's expected of them.
Why is that so important? And folks, I'm not saying this is important. I'm saying this is massively important to the success of your team and your accountability.
If you get this done correctly, you will be blown away at how everybody is accomplishing exactly what you expect of them if you do not do this. I have, I've been teaching this for a very long time, couple decades.
And, and the crazy thing is is people will create a KRA and then never do anything about it. There's no accountability to the KRA. There's no conversations, there's no ranking somebody on how well they did their KRAs, how effective they're being, none of that.
And then they wonder why somebody is not doing exactly what they expect of them. The KRA provides clear expectations for every single team member.
And for most team members, KPIs can be applied to the KRA. What are Key Performance Indicators of this person really winning at what they're doing, winning at their job?
Now, obviously that's easy for salespeople, obviously that's easy for marketing folks. But you could have KPIs for project managers.
You could have KPIs for, you know, folks in your customer care center. You can have KPIs for almost everybody in the building. Not there's usually there might be one or two that you can't, or it's kind of difficult.
But you should have Key Performance Indicators asking, have they performed well? How are they performing? Here's the expected performance, all of those pieces. So let's say you have a marketing team with a very well defined KRA or KRAs.
And maybe those KRAs encompass, you know, campaign planning, execution, analysis, right?
If you spell that out to exactly what you expect for it to look like when the job is done really well, then you will have a marketing team that is way more focused on their efforts.
If you have KPIs that are tracking the engagement rates or the lead conversions, right. Then everybody knows exactly what success looks like or it does not look like.
They also know what failure looks like. If we're not hitting these KPIs for not hitting these numbers. All of that can be done on pretty much every single role.
KRAs can be done on every single role in your business. KPIs can be done on most.
When you have these things in place and you sit down and you go over these KRAs and KPIs with every single team member on a regular basis in the beginning, until they're nailing things 100%.
Then what happens is people know what they're supposed to be doing, they're not doing their job and finding out six months later that they're doing something incorrectly, they know early on.
Hey, you've deviated a little bit or you're not accomplishing this to the percentage that we need you to or whatever, right?
Fill in the blank, the discussion that you're going to have, whether or whether or not they're nailing their KRAs.
And what about the KPIs? These are the numbers you're supposed to be hitting. What's holding you back? What's keeping you from getting here?
Oh, you were missing some tools, we're missing some software, we're missing something great. Let's fill that in. Let's get that done so that we can set you up for success.
So not only does it help the team member to know what success looks like and know what winning looks like in their role, but it also helps the leader to know exactly the same.
Plus it helps the leader to ferret out problems way early so you don't get six months down the road going, man, Joe over there is just lazy as all get out. He's not accomplishing anything that we expected of him.
You haven't even had a good quality talk with him yet. You might find out that he's busting his butt. However, there is something missing on the website that would make his job a thousand times easier if you would just solve the problem.
And now you're six months down the road solving the problem, right? So KRAs KPIs with clarity, can absolutely change your entire business. But here's the great thing.
When somebody is not doing it well, then having regular KRA meetings allows you to have the conversation without it being something that, that you need to be afraid of.
You don't have to fear the conflict. You don't have to fear the tough conversation. You don't have to fear that this person is going to control the conversation like crazy.
And you're not going to know what to say until two hours later because you've got the information right in front of you.
Hey, help me to understand. This is what we said your care as were. And the first one here you're doing about 50%. So help me to understand why we're not at a solid 75 plus right now.
And then that allows the person to explain what's going on. They have to take responsibility. And if they get off track at all, if they blame other people, if they try to blame you, whatever it is.
Hold on, let's come back to this. You know, because sometimes deflection is a very important thing in a tough conversation.
For somebody who's being given the tough conversation, if they deflect, if they, if they, you know, just try to get you to take responsibility for something that is not your responsibility, or if they blame somebody else or whatever, just bring them right back.
Hey, this is the piece. We'll talk about that in a minute. Let's get back to this piece right here. Help me to understand what's keeping you from being at a hundred percent here.
And you just bring them right back. You've got the information right in front of you. It is a thousand times easier than trying to have this conversation with somebody.
And you have literally no accountability in front of you. Right? That's the part that most people struggle with.
So done well, you're going to have the best tool, not only for you as a leader, to not have to worry about too much conflict, too much on the tough conversations.
You'll be able to do it well. And you'll be amazed at how well it aligns everybody in your business to accomplishing the main vision and following the Main strategy.
The Power of Structure and Organization (00:20:19)
Number three, Accountability brings power of both structure and organization to a business.
So this is another fantastic thing. Accountability thrives in an environment that is structured with systems, right? Like project management tools, like scheduled meetings.
You know, all these systems that you put in place, we're going to call them systems, we call them processes. A lot of you out there or some of you out there call them SOPs, right? But including meeting rhythms, right?
The things that, the scheduled meetings, the times that you're supposed to be having with individuals, teams, leaders, whoever it is, but all of those processes that you have in place, all of those systems that you have in place, accountability to the process makes the process work correctly.
So if you are, if you're like almost every single company that's ever been through a StratPlan, on their first StratPlan, you probably have some processes, you probably don't have them all.
You probably don't have them all documented. You probably don't have them where they're easily accessible to any team member at any time so that they can figure out what they need to do. That's probably, that's what we see every business coming in.
I've never had a business come into a StratPlan in all these years that is like, nope. All our processes are perfect in place, easily accessible, well documented.
I've had one company that had probably 50% of them documented, but they weren't updated, they weren't optimized, they were in a place to be reached. But it was kind of difficult. It was on a drive that people had to access that drive.
And I'm going to tell you, we use project management tools, we use software like, like Asana. Our processes are all in Asana.
Unfortunately we don't get paid by them. We really should, as many people as we point that direction because it's a fantastic tool. So using things like Asana, Trello, we use it a ton for all of our tasks. I mean, a ton.
It's going to keep all of that stuff visible, it's going to keep it prioritized, right?
So if you're doing daily or weekly check ins with team members or teams, then it's going to provide opportunities for you to update where the team is as well as get them aligned, right?
Make sure that everybody's on the same page and we're not having to wrangle people, you know, to get them all on the same page and move in the same direction.
Instead, when we have those meetings, we have those tools in place, we have those systems in place, then it really reduces the amount of miscommunication that happens on a continuous basis. Right.
It really is going to drop the duplication of efforts that you're probably experiencing. Why are we having to do that again?
Well, so and so didn't tell us about this. So we gotta start all over and we gotta make this thing happen. We gotta go fix this thing over here. Right.
So I want you to think about accountability as the operating system of your team keeping every single thing running smoothly.
High-Quality Communication Builds Trust and Clarity (00:23:35)
So key point number four, high levels of quality communication. High levels, you hear me say, the number one issue in every business until they solve this, and this is why I'm telling you, you need to bare minimum start with personality profiles.
But high levels of quality communication absolutely builds trust and it absolutely builds clarity. Right? It creates clarity. I should say it that way. So accountability is the number two biggest issue in every business that I've ever worked with.
It's rooted in consistent, consistent high levels of quality communication. When you are communicating consistently, incredibly well, incredibly clear.
When your communication is made to lean in the direction of the other person and set that person up for success and your whole team is operating this way, then what you discover is that the right hand actually does know what the left hand is doing.
You discover that people communicate really well and it takes less communication.
You discover that people enjoy communicating with each other to make sure they're on the same page. You will discover that people don't like surprises at that point.
They don't want to be surprised by not knowing something, so they make sure that communication happens.
So let's say, you know, you're in a department meeting or something, you're discussing updates on a shared project, then by doing so and ensuring that you're communicating clearly, there's no assumptions made about the progress.
This is something we help a ton of clients deal with. There's some operating systems out there that aren't good at communication and they are not good at accountability at all.
I mean, it's barely any accountability built into it. And we have helped a ton of clients to fix those things and create clear communication, you know, so that they can remove bottlenecks, so they can make sure that everybody is fostering collaboration.
They want to be on the same page. They want to, you know, make sure that they're being successful and they're winning at the projects, whatever the thing is that they're on.
By getting them on the same page, by using the right tools, by making sure that we clearly communicate, it will blow away your team on how much they enjoy communicating together.
You may find right now that you have many team members that don't enjoy communicating with certain people because it's difficult, it's painful.
There's disagreements or arguments, if you will. There may be some gossip and backstabbing there. There's some probably some cultural issues, and I'm saying probably.
But come on, let's be honest. There's a real good chance that there's a lot of cultural issues that you might be experiencing or team members may be experiencing because of the lack of communication, the lack of accountability, all of that stuff.
So while we're here, that's a great opportunity for me to tell you about something that is coming up now.
Next-Level Leadership LIVE Event 2025 (00:26:46)
We have a phenomenal event. The Next-Level Leadership LIVE Event is coming up April 2nd through the 4th.
And this is for every single one of you who is overwhelmed, every leader who feels like you've got the weight of this business on your shoulder, the weight of this team on your shoulder, everybody who gets through the end of your day.
And you think to yourself, you know, your spouse asks you, what did you do today? And you're like, I don't even know. But it was a ton, right?
The Next-Level Leadership LIVE Event is absolutely for you now. This is happening April 2nd through the 4th. It is packed with tools and strategies that you need to lead your business with confidence and most importantly, get your life back.
Folks, let's be real. Leading a business shouldn't mean that you are the busiest person in the room.
You deserve to step back, trust your team and still see the business thrive. You just need the right tools and the right teachings and the right trainings. At this event, we're going to do exactly that.
We're going to show you exactly how to make all of that happen. You're going to learn how to lead smarter, not harder.
So giving your team the tools, we're going to teach you and give you the tools to help your team step up so that you don't have to do it all.
We're going to help you to find balance. We're going to give you practical tips to lead at work and and to lead at home so that you don't sacrifice either.
And folks, I know a lot of you spend so much time not only at work, but also working at home or having to deal with things during the night, right?
Because there's still things coming up or things you missed or you were so overwhelmed during the day you didn't get to everything.
You're also going to find that you are in a community of like-minded leaders who understand your challenges, they understand where you are, and they're ready to share their experiences as well.
This is one of the best things after all of these teachings or during, I should say, all of these teachings that we do at the Next-Level Leadership LIVE Event is you don't have people in the room who don't know what you're going through.
It's not a room full of people who've never led, never owned a business. These are folks that are in the same position that you are.
Some are further along, some might be behind you get to help some, some will help you.
But all of these teachings, what we do is we walk through these processes to help you grow with the information right then and there so that you can take it and go back to your business with actionable steps that you can put in place.
The moment you get back, no more guessing what to do next. You'll have a clear plan, a clear strategy for your business and for your life.
Now, I know some of you are thinking, Chris, I don't have the time for this.
But here's the truth. If you keep running yourself ragged the way that you are, burnout is inevitable. If you keep running ragged, burnout is inevitable. Invest a few days in yourself and your business will benefit for years to come.
So join us at the Next Level Leadership Live Event 2025. Registration is already open.
Go to chrislocurto.com/liveevents. That's chrislocurto.com/liveevents to learn more and to secure your spot. Folks, do not wait until you're too burned out to fix the problem.
Coaching, Training, and Supporting Success (00:30:25)
All right, key point number five. That goes right along with this coaching, training, and supporting success. So accountability isn't just about enforcing rules. A lot of people think that it's.
You know, a lot of us come out of some bad religious backgrounds where, you know, certain people beat you over the head with a Bible and tell you everything that's wrong with you, right?
That is not what this is at all. The accountability that we're talking about is lifting your arms up, not beating you down. It's about lovingly helping people to succeed.
So, for example, a sales team benefits from ongoing coaching.
Guys, if you've got a sales team, and I'm pretty sure you do, or at least a salesperson at bare minimum, whoever that is, you need ongoing coaching.
You need somebody who understands how to not sell your product, but how to discover exactly what every potential client needs and how we have the answer to supply that, right, that you guys as a company can supply that.
So a sales team that benefits from ongoing coaching sessions that provide feedback, celebrate wins, and address obstacles that absolutely helps your team to win, you will be blown away at how much better your team members sell when they're getting training.
And I know a lot of folks are like, oh, no, I don't need any training. I got this. Trust me. There isn't a sales team member out there that doesn't still need some help in learning how to sell better.
Learning how to discover better. Right? So when leaders invest in their team's growth, it creates this incredibly supportive environment where accountability feels like an opportunity instead of feeling like a burden. Right?
So a lot of- a lot of salespeople-- We-we do a lot of sales coaching. Joel Fort does a ton. And it's funny because some folks are like, oh, my gosh, you're just doing this because, you know, big brother's looking over my shoulder.
And then within minutes of giving them some tools, they're like, okay, give me everything you got. That's way better than the way that I'm doing it, so give me everything you got.
When you provide training, I don't care where the person is in your company. If they can be coached, if they can be trained, if you can make them better, then your success increases throughout the entire company.
I am somebody who teaches, trains, coaches, and I have had coaches and trainers in my life my entire life. It is the. It's crazy.
It's one of those things that people think that they don't need, and if you get the right people, it will absolutely increase your success.
When I was racing, it was funny. I had to go through a couple of different coaches. I knew that I wanted somebody I was starting late in life and formula.
So I raced in skiing as a kid, but late in life, I raced formula cars for, I don't know, a decade. And I needed somebody who was well beyond me to come out and tell me exactly what I knew.
I knew that if I got the right person, I would increase my chances of winning and winning. Winning the championship and all that kind of fun stuff. And I had to go through a couple -- I went through a couple of coaches.
They gave me some nuggets, but I wouldn't say they were worth what I paid them until I nailed the right person who just did such a great job, knew how to speak to me, was a driver coach, which means that they used to race as well, and could speak to me in the way that I needed to hear it and could guide and direct me in the very ways that I needed.
They weren't just somebody who was pompous, they were somebody who could literally humble themselves and guide me to success.
And that happened and I had many successes after that, which was great.
So when you take this approach to making sure that you've got coaching and teaching and all that, then it builds confidence in your team members and it ensures that the team feels equipped to meet the expectations.
Action Items (00:34:32)
So here are some action items that I have for you right now. I want you to start by working on those carries and KPIs. I want you to document these.
Ensure every team member has clearly defined roles and clearly measurable goals and then hold them accountable to those right. Get--
Make sure that they're on the same page with you, they agree with you. Make sure that you're implementing regular meetings, folks.
Schedule one on ones. Spend time getting your team members in the right place, the right direction, everything. Hold them accountable to those KRAs. Give them direction, give them training.
Make sure that you are doing department check ins. Make sure that you're doing team reviews so that you maintain this alignment inside of your business.
Make sure that you're using a quality project management tool. Adopt tools like Asana. I can't say it enough.
The-- Trello. I understand, I've not done Trello, but I understand that's a pretty solid tool as well. So that you can streamline your task management and so that you can foster transparency within the team.
Don't make it difficult for people to do their tasks, to see projects, to see their processes. Get it all in a place where people can see it, foster transparency. You'll be blown away how well they do.
Another thing you need to do is you need to invest in coaching, dedicate time to train, to develop your team, providing the support that they need so that they can excel.
Think about the money that if you pour in, if they grow even just, you know, a couple percent, what does that look like inside of your business?
And finally, I want you to foster open communication. When you have high levels of quality communication, it creates a safe space for questions, for feedback, for pushback and for collaboration in every single meeting.
All of your meetings will go so much better if you make sure that there is clear open communication.
Additional Resources (00:36:29)
So some additional resources I want you to use go to episode our show, episode 367 | Leading High Levels of Communication and Accountability.
This is where we break down DISC for personality types, D, I, S and C. And we explain how leaders can use this knowledge to communicate better, to boost productivity and to build stronger accountability. So that's 367.
Also episode 486 | The Risks and Rewards of Accountability. So this is where we take a deep dive into the risks and rewards of holding others accountable.
Now, let me clarify by what I mean, but when I say holding others accountable, again, lovingly helping others to succeed, if you can do that, it's one of the greatest keys to success that a leader can learn. So leaders make it happen.
Conclusion (00:37:21)
All right, folks, listen. Accountability is not about micromanaging. You did not hear me say that. I don't want you to micromanage. I want you to hold them accountable.
I want you to lift their arms up when it's necessary. I want you to celebrate the wins. When you can build up the culture with clarity, with communication, make sure that you're driving toward alignment.
When you do that, you're going to have much better teamwork.
When everyone understands their role and works toward a shared vision, then your team can achieve extraordinary results. So start implementing these strategies today. Today.
And watch your team's dynamics transform for the better. So that's all the time we got today. I really want to thank you for joining us.
Please do us a favor. Hit that like button. Leave us a review. Share this with the folks that you know need to hear this so that we can touch more lives.
As always, we want you to take this information. Change your leadership, change your business, change your life. And join us on the next episode.