JUST ONE THING
Accountability Starts with YOU!
Episode 36
With Rick White, 180BIZ
What I want to talk to you about is the secret of accountability. Why do I think this is a big deal? Well, telling yourself all the amazing things that you're going to do, whether it's professional or personally is really awesome. And at the same time, it's completely useless. Why? It's because you lie to yourself all the time. It's because you judge others by their actions, and you judge yourself by your intentions. So even if you didn't get something done that you want to do that day, it's okay because you planned it that way. You wanted to do it. You just couldn't. The fact that it was on your plate was a good thing and you’ll do it tomorrow. That doesn't work. I want to give you one, two, three, four ideas that are going to help improve accountability.
The number one secret for accountability is CLARITY. For example, you have your business growing and you want to grow it more. It's not about making more money. That's not accountable because you could make one dollar more. And that would be more. I know that's not what you want, but the clearer you can be on your destination, the more likely you are to achieve it. That’s because you have a really fantastic ruler to measure your performance with. So, CLARITY is the very first secret to accountability and understanding what your destination looks like. Then you can really go after it.
The second secret for improving accountability is it there's a psychological term called SOCIAL FACILITATION. Basically, that means we tend to perform better when others are looking at us. The second secret to accountability is telling others what your goals are. What are your destinations? Get out there and tell as many people as you possibly can. I even like to set up rewards for achieving and penalties for not achieving them. I want to apply as much pleasure to achieve the thing I want and as much pain to not achieving it. I’ve heard stories of people saying they will write a check to an organization they absolutely hate if they don't achieve their goal. That gives them some drive, some incentive. There's “towards” drive and “away from” drive. You can use both of them. It's the carrot and the stick. It really works well when you use them in tandem. And by telling other people what your t goals are. It adds a level of accountability to it because now you've got people watching you. You can have an accountability partner where you're going to meet on a regular basis and hold each other accountable for the different things that you say you're going to do. So, the first strategy for increased accountability is CLARITY. The second is to TELL OTHERS.
The third is going to sound silly in the beginning, but please listen to me on this. The third strategy for increasing accountability is to DO IT FOR OTHER PEOPLE. We do things for other people that we would never do for ourselves. I know I do that all the time. I am so wired to do for others that sometimes I have a hard time doing for myself. I feel selfish. It's not the right thing to do. And I have a hard time reconciling it. So let me give you an example of this. Let's say in the past, you've wanted to increase sales. You wanted more profit in the business. You've been struggling with profit, but every time you sit down, and you think you’ll set a sales goal that's really out there. It feels kind of sleazy and self-serving. A way around that is to tie something that you can do for other people to the goal that you want. So maybe you set the sales goal and provide health insurance not just your employees but for their families too. So, the goal is to achieve this sales number so that you can make that happen. And all of a sudden you may find it's a lot easier to achieve that goal because you're doing it for somebody else. And it feels really good to do it that way. So doing you're setting a goal and then doing it for other people is a really amazing thing to do.
And then the last secret to accountability that I have, the last strategy I have for increased accountability is to HIRE A COACH. One of my jobs as a coach is to hold people accountable to what they say they're going to do. It's critically important. When we were kids, our parents held us accountable. Our teachers held us accountable. Our scout leaders held us accountable.
Our religious leaders held us accountable. And then we go into the workforce, and we had managers and supervisors and owners that held us accountable to the things that we should be doing. But once you get into the ownership role, once become the owner, there's no one above you, but the good Lord. And because of that, you end up in a situation where there's no one else to hold you accountable. It's really easy to put things off. So, hire a coach. That'll be somebody that's not above you but is there to hold you to a standard that you have set for yourself. Every one of us wants to become a better version of ourselves. And we talk about it all the time, but it's not going to make a difference until we act on it. It’s not going to make a difference until we live and grow toward that vision we have for ourselves. Hiring a coach can be an amazing thing to do to help you get there. Why do you think CEOs have a board of directors? Because the directors hold the CEO accountable. Why are their shareholders? Because shareholders hold the board of directors accountable. Do you see what I'm saying? The more accountability you have in your business, the more the business runs the way it should. And the less stress you have.
Accountability starts with you. And then it trickles down. You show other people how true you are to your word and do the things that you say you're going to do when you say you're going to do them. It makes all the difference in the world. So, start with you. And then watch what happens as this level of accountability. Your level of accountability goes up in the shop. What's amazing is when accountability goes up, tolerance goes down and the standards you want for your business are not what you talk about. They're what you tolerate. So as what you tolerate goes down, accountability goes up, your business starts to run smoother. You start to get better results with your team. Your team's more engaged. Accountability is truly the answer.
So as a quick recap, number one, CLARITY. Be crystal clear on your destination. Number two, TELL OTHERS, get others involved. Number three, don't make it about you getting something, DO IT FOR OTHERS. And then number four, HIRE A COACH makes all the difference in the world.
I hope this has really resonated with you. If it has please share it so it can help other people. That's our mission. God bless, take care, stay safe and go make some money.