Back to Business Basics: Why Accountability Is Key
One of the things I hear a lot -- and it's been proven by a number of studies -- is that people are 50% more likely to get something done if they've written it down. Having written objectives and a plan are really a key, but obviously, they're not the only key because 50% of people still don't get it done. So what is the difference between the 50% that get it done and those that don't? It's accountability. It's ensuring that you follow through and get something accomplished.We'd all like to be self-motivated and say that we can get things done no matter what, but in reality, we're better off if we have a structure in place for that. In my "Seven Timeless Keys to Business Master", I really recommend two levels of accountability.
Accountability in Management
For the management team or the leadership team, we want to have some "rocks" in place. These are our quarterly written objectives that outline what we want to get done. These are followed up with weekly leadership team meetings to make sure that we follow through on these objectives.One part of the weekly leadership team meetings is simply to report and make sure that we're making progress from week to week. At these team meetings, we set to-dos for ourself for the next week. Not operational to-dos though, the business to-dos. It becomes really important for you to make sure that you not only have written goals and objectives, but that you also have a methodology (like these weekly leadership team meetings) to check in and make sure that you're making progress.
Accountability Amongst Employees
Accountability doesn't start and stop with just you, it's important that your employees have a way to stay on track as well. While the leadership team has their weekly meetings, quarterly objectives and weekly to-dos, our employees can have something called key predictive indicators. A key predictive indicator is one to three measures to make sure that each employee knows what's most important and what's going to create success in your eyes for them.Sit down with each employee and help them develop these key predictive indicators. A good question to ask would be, "What are the most important things that you need to do each day?" It's not typically a financial measure, but it's an activity measure. It takes and measures the activity that they're putting in each day. We're looking for certain activities that predict success, and generally, predict success with relationship to what our customers define as success. We all know that the only way that we're going to succeed and win in business is if we serve our customers well.In conclusion, accountability is absolutely key and we want to make sure everyone in our organization is focused on that. Thanks so much for visiting. Check out my other videos for more ideas on how to break through and reach the next level in your business. And, if you like this video, please subscribe.
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