S1: Welcome back to Building Billions. Today, I want to talk
S1: about one of the most prevalent questions I get from
S1: business owners, which is how do I hold my team accountable?
S1: And it's such a silly question because the reality is
S1: you hold them accountable by holding them accountable. Like you
S1: follow up, you stay consistent. You have some sort of
S1: disciplinary in place when things aren't going well, like the
S1: answer is actually fairly straightforward. But the challenge is that
S1: most business owners aren't willing to actually go through the process. Right?
S1: It's not that you don't know how to hold somebody accountable.
S1: It's that you're not running your business from a place
S1: of a solid foundation to where you could run the
S1: process through, have the person turn out that they can't
S1: be held accountable, that they're not willing to do what
S1: it takes, and then you have to fire them because
S1: your business isn't run in that way. So I want
S1: to unpack all of that because this idea of accountability
S1: is fairly straightforward. So we'll just handle those pieces and
S1: then get into more of the structure of what do
S1: you do to run a business so that the business
S1: is culture is a culture of accountability, which ultimately means
S1: how do you train team members as quickly as possible
S1: and create a training culture? That's a better question. So
S1: let's just dive in. When it comes to holding your
S1: team accountable and doing resets with your team, first of all,
S1: you have to make sure that you are clear about
S1: what the expectation was to begin with. Now, the more
S1: senior the person is, the less clear you have to
S1: be about the expectation. And I've seen this bite me
S1: in the ass a handful of times, but for the
S1: most part, you as a business owner, as a leader,
S1: will shift what your expectations of your team are as
S1: your business grows because you're growing and you're not doing
S1: the same things that you once were, which means that
S1: you're holding other people accountable to doing those things. And
S1: in a perfect world, when you realize, Oh, it's no
S1: longer my responsibility to solve this problem, you would sit
S1: down with your team member, you would share with them
S1: in a one on one. Hey, moving forward, when you
S1: have questions about this, instead of you coming to me
S1: for final approval, you are now the approver and I'm
S1: going to watch how you approve these things for a
S1: handful of times just to make sure there's quality assurance.
S1: But after you've given me confidence through you making this
S1: decision over a handful of times, then moving forward, this
S1: will be your decision and you will be the person
S1: in the process documentation that people know to go to
S1: in order to make this decision. This is ideal seen.
S1: This is like, man, the most organized business on the
S1: face of the planet would do it this way. However,
S1: what actually tends to happen is you have this expectation.
S1: You may or may not communicate the expectation to your
S1: team member. You get frustrated when the expectation is not met.
S1: The team member feels overwhelmed, doesn't want to push back
S1: on you because you're now frustrated at them for not
S1: reading your mind. And they either figure it out, become
S1: more engaged, lean in and chalk this up to I'm
S1: going to learn from this experience or they start to
S1: become disengaged. Start sabotaging your business and you have to
S1: terminate them or they leave. So this idea of setting
S1: expectations is like, Man, if you could get good at
S1: this as a business owner. You will have an easier
S1: ride over the course of the time that you're growing
S1: your business. I'm not saying it's going to be lined
S1: with lollipops and freaking rows, but it's going to be easier.
S1: So first things first. How do you know and decide
S1: which things you should be doing versus which things your
S1: team members should be doing at any given point in organization?
S1: I think of Cardinal Ventures today. I know what my
S1: job is. I know based on my job description, I
S1: know what my team's jobs are based on their job descriptions,
S1: and I know what areas I'm pushing team members on.
S1: And so as I'm holding people accountable to the things
S1: that they are responsible for doing, in nine out of
S1: ten instances, I've shared with them that it's my expectation
S1: that they are hitting the target, that they are completing
S1: the tasks that they are doing, the thing that they're
S1: supposed to do, which this comes from proper job description, documentation,
S1: proper clarity around what the objective of a role is,
S1: and then bonus points. But the reality is you should
S1: really start here is having metrics associated with the responsibilities
S1: for every single role. Because when you have metrics that
S1: are associated with targets, right, the metric is just the
S1: number of the thing. How many sales call somebody makes
S1: the time in which you take somebody to close the books.
S1: Like all of those things are just metrics. But the
S1: target would be, Hey, you're going to make 150 calls
S1: or you're going to close the books within eight business
S1: days of the month, right? Those would be targets. So
S1: when you are clear on the metrics and then the targets,
S1: then you can just coach people on, hey, you either
S1: hit the target or you didn't hit the target because
S1: you have tracking of your metrics. And you clearly explained
S1: that this was the expectation on the front end. So
S1: these little things that people don't do, instead of you
S1: being frustrated that they aren't doing them and holding on
S1: to that frustration for weeks on end, I would highly
S1: recommend that in the moment you coach them on the issue.
S1: Like I had a situation that happened just a few
S1: days ago where somebody came into my office. I was
S1: doing something else that was related to my job and
S1: they came in and gave me a bunch of problems
S1: and didn't have any solutions for the problems. And we're
S1: just like giving me a freaking update on all the problems.
S1: And my response back was, What do you want me
S1: to do with this information? And they said, Oh, I'm
S1: just giving you an update. And I said, I don't
S1: need an update. Give me the solution at the end
S1: of the day so that I know what I can
S1: actually do because I can't do anything with this information.
S1: And the team member just kept like pushing back, kept
S1: going through the whole rigmarole. I'm like, Listen. There are
S1: two other department heads that are involved with this process.
S1: I am not the decision maker on this. You guys
S1: are the decision makers who are going to put the
S1: proposal together and then you're going to come back to
S1: me and I'm going to approve the proposal, but I
S1: am not the person that is going to get in
S1: the weeds to solve this problem. Now, six months ago,
S1: I might have been the person to help get in
S1: the weeds with this particular set of problems because I
S1: had a different role. There was different expectations of what
S1: I was responsible for. But this was a chance for
S1: me to reset expectations with a team member. And there
S1: was also another team member in my office who was
S1: helping me do what I'm supposed to be doing that
S1: overheard this whole conversation. And. This reset, this accountability and
S1: like shift in what you're telling somebody to do. These
S1: are the moments that most people are unwilling to actually
S1: have the conversation around. I'm not going to wait to
S1: get mad at this person later. I'm not going to
S1: think less of this person. I'm just going to say, hey,
S1: wait a second, dude, this is your job is not
S1: my job. Go do your job. D y j Do
S1: your job and I'm gonna do mine. So your ability
S1: to just handle situations like this in the moment now,
S1: in a perfectly documented organization, you might create a process
S1: around this. This is not something that happens enough in
S1: our organization to where I'd need to have a process
S1: documented around it. But this reset. It's good to be
S1: a game changer because I just know that now this
S1: won't happen in the future. And if it does happen
S1: in the future, I'm just going to go back to, hey,
S1: this is not my this is not my problem. And
S1: your strength as a leader will come in moments like this,
S1: because the reality is you could likely solve the problem.
S1: I could have solved the problem. I could have spent
S1: 15 minutes coming up with a solution, emailing a couple
S1: of people, letting them know this was a solution. But
S1: the more I have to do that, the less I'm
S1: training my team members to be responsible for the things
S1: that they could be responsible for. Now they not. They
S1: aren't yet. Maybe he didn't know yet that he was
S1: responsible for this. But regardless, you should never have somebody
S1: just come into your office and put a bunch of
S1: problems at your door. I like to think of this
S1: when I think about one on one as any interaction
S1: with a with a team member, as your team members
S1: have this monkey, there's like this monkeys creating all this
S1: problems for them. They're like crawling all over them. They're
S1: throwing shit places like the monkey is the problems that
S1: all team members have with the work that they're doing.
S1: And as the the boss, as the leader, you could
S1: put yourself in a position where you are the person
S1: that they go to with the monkey and they just
S1: drop the monkey off in your office and then they
S1: leave and they go home and have a nice dinner
S1: with their families. And now you're dealing with this frickin monkey.
S1: And if you do this across all ten, 12, 15
S1: of your direct reports, then you're the one who's dealing
S1: with these fricking monkeys who are throwing shit all over
S1: your office, ripping up papers and causing havoc, and you
S1: haven't actually taught your team how to handle the monkeys
S1: because they are not your monkeys. Those are your team members, monkeys.
S1: And again, even though you might be the best freaking
S1: zookeeper on the face of the planet, you need to
S1: teach your team how to be a zookeeper. You need
S1: to teach your team how to handle those things so
S1: that as your business grows, your team members responsibility, your
S1: team members thought process, your team members ability to handle
S1: things grow as well. And so. This is this is
S1: the part one of accountability. It's getting clear on who
S1: makes a decision. At what point do they make the
S1: decision and who is the approver of that decision. The
S1: more you train somebody to come to you with solutions,
S1: they give you 2 to 3, You tell them two
S1: out of the three are terrible and you tell them why.
S1: And then the one that they came up with that
S1: was great. You tell them this is the one and
S1: this is the reason why. So you're constantly using opportunities
S1: that people come to you with problems as a way
S1: to train them to be a solution oriented, but b
S1: give you transparency into your thinking so that they can
S1: start to think like that as well without actually needing
S1: you to be involved. So if this whole process happens
S1: and you're giving visibility into how you think and you're
S1: training your team members and they still aren't. Being accountable
S1: to whatever the thing is you're implementing. You have to
S1: move into performance improvement like you have to go to, Hey,
S1: I told you this was the expectation. You're now coming
S1: to me a second time. This is the second time
S1: we've had this conversation. If we have to have this
S1: conversation a third time, we're gonna have to have a reset.
S1: Because I can't have this conversation three times. I can't
S1: have it 50 times. I can't have it a hundred times.
S1: I need you to learn and to execute on what
S1: we're talking about. And if you can't do that, you're
S1: not the right person for the role. Most of you
S1: will not do that because you can't actually follow through
S1: on that. Because you don't know how to train a
S1: new person. You don't know how to find new team
S1: members in order to help you get them in their business.
S1: But that is the correct response when somebody is showing
S1: that they are not accountable to the things that you
S1: are actually following up on and wanting them to be
S1: accountable to. So we just go straight into performance improvement.
S1: And when that person does correct their performance, if they
S1: do correct it, you acknowledge that because you want them
S1: to do the right thing. The idea behind performance improvement
S1: is not that you just fire somebody. Like that's that's
S1: not performance improvement. That is I'm so pissed off because
S1: this person has made this mistake so many times that
S1: I'm just going to get rid of them and slap
S1: on a performance improvement plan for the documentation sake, but
S1: not really because I'm trying to help them improve their performance.
S1: That's just total BS. Don't do that. The first time
S1: it happens, address it. The second time it happens, address
S1: it the third time. You're going through the correct process
S1: and documenting it because you want them to improve. But
S1: if they're not going to improve, as soon as you
S1: go into that phase, you have to post that position
S1: and you should be transparent with the person that you're
S1: posting that position. Hey, I know that we've now had
S1: two conversations about this. This is now a reset and
S1: we're moving into a verbal warning. So because of that,
S1: because there's been three instances where I've had to follow
S1: up and you've now put into question that you're the
S1: right person for this role. I need to start looking
S1: in order to protect our organization so that we can
S1: service our clients to the highest level possible. It's not emotional.
S1: It's a business decision, But you make it emotional when
S1: you don't follow up and you create all the emotion
S1: around how long it's been, how many times they've done this,
S1: because you're not doing it on the first on the
S1: first offense, you're doing it too late in the process.
S1: And so I'm a huge proponent of not just like
S1: hitting people with a stick, but also like, hey, here's
S1: a carrot for this particular behavior. I'm going to reward
S1: you for doing the right things. I'm you should absolutely
S1: be acknowledging your team when they do the right things
S1: and they make the changes that you want them to make.
S1: But most business owners that I work with don't have
S1: the acknowledgement problem. They're bigger. Problem is they're just letting
S1: people run amok. And so they have a culture of
S1: a lack of accountability. So they don't know at what
S1: point is going to be the turning point where I
S1: no longer accept this. Because if you're no longer accepting
S1: the lack of accountability that's in your culture, it's likely
S1: not one person, it's likely a bunch of people, maybe
S1: even the whole team. And so then you're sitting here thinking, Man,
S1: how do I maintain my revenue? How do I maintain
S1: my current profitability, much less frickin grow if I know
S1: that I'm about to blow my whole team out because
S1: none of them are accountable? Well, first step is acknowledging
S1: the situation that you're in. Second step You have to
S1: become a coaching and training organization. As soon as you
S1: make the decision to become a training and coaching organization,
S1: you start pivoting these team members into documenting what they
S1: are currently doing, the value that they're currently adding into
S1: their role, their current process, their current system, their current interactions,
S1: so that at least you have a base, you have
S1: a foundation for how you're going to potentially promote them,
S1: that's an option. And that's probably the vein that I
S1: would pitch this in to a new team. Hey guys,
S1: you can't achieve your goals and you can't grow in
S1: this organization unless we're clear on what's currently going on.
S1: So for the next quarter, a new initiative that we're
S1: rolling out is called Process Documentation. Ooh, So fun, so exciting.
S1: And the lazy way to do this is have people
S1: record loom videos of what they're doing in their processes
S1: and then convert them to like actual standard operating procedures. Ideally,
S1: you have a loom video and a standard operating procedure,
S1: but you go roll by, roll and say, okay, great,
S1: where are you spending the majority of your time? These
S1: are the areas. Okay, now I use this list of
S1: where they're spending their time as a list of processes
S1: that need to be created. And then over the course
S1: of the next three months, every single role has processes
S1: documented for how they contribute. And if they don't create
S1: the processes, then you already know that they're going to
S1: be somebody who's going to try to hold things against
S1: you inside your organization, which means that you need to
S1: double down on them recording what they're doing and documenting
S1: processes because you're going to need to train the new
S1: person on how to do it. It's also going to
S1: give you visibility into where people are wasting time, where
S1: they're duplicating activities, where there's just efficiencies that can be created.
S1: So this process becomes very simple. Once you make the decision,
S1: we're going to become a coaching and development and training
S1: organization and you don't have to fire everybody immediately. That's
S1: the good news. Most people want to have this conversation
S1: with them. They freak out because they're like, I can't
S1: hold my team accountable because I have to fire everybody.
S1: You don't have to fire everybody, but you have to
S1: put a time frame in place. Give yourself 90 days,
S1: 90 days. Every role gets documented to the best of
S1: your ability, which will then allow you to sleep at
S1: night knowing that Joe and Sarah don't have all the
S1: keys of information. And like the dead bodies, you know,
S1: all the analogies that I'm mixing into. One, the keys
S1: to the kingdom and all the dead bodies aren't stuck
S1: in their heads if they decided to leave anyway. So
S1: once you've taken that step, then the new person who
S1: comes in, if you have to get rid of the
S1: old person, has a framework for how they would be trained.
S1: And then you introduce that person to this new culture
S1: of accountability where you follow up on the things that
S1: you ask of them. If they are doing their onboarding
S1: training and you're saying, Hey, give me three recommendations on
S1: how we could make this process better, then you're reading.
S1: What were their three recommendations? And you're teaching them, Oh, man,
S1: these two recommendations totally suck. We would never do this.
S1: This is why. But this recommendation is a really good one.
S1: Let's update the process tracker. So you're bringing it back
S1: to how are we updating the current work, assuming that
S1: the way that it's being done right now is not
S1: optimized because there's no way it could be optimized if
S1: you already have a culture of lack of accountability? And
S1: what I mean by that is of all the processes
S1: that you're going to have your team members create, we're
S1: starting this from a place of, hey, our our culture
S1: is not accountable. So just knowing that they're not accountable,
S1: I know that there is waste in that organization. I
S1: know that there is fluff time being spent. I know
S1: that there's like just areas of opportunity. There's no way
S1: that you have high performers in your organization who are
S1: the best of the best, who also aren't accountable. High
S1: performers do not exist in environments that aren't accountable. And
S1: so I just know by the fact that you're asking
S1: this question and interested in this podcast that you don't
S1: have the best of the best. You are now trying
S1: to hire the best of the best. Remember, we've documented
S1: what the first person was doing. You've now brought in
S1: somebody new. They're looking at what the first person was doing.
S1: That is probably at 70%, maybe 80%, if you're lucky,
S1: of what that role could look like. Optimized. So your
S1: training in with this new high performer that you've brought in, hey,
S1: we're going to look at these processes, We're going to
S1: ensure that they're optimized. You're going to first learn how
S1: it's done, but then you're going to give recommendations and
S1: we're going to test into those those recommendations if they're
S1: good and see if the metric improves and if the
S1: metric improves and you're able to hit targets, therefore we're
S1: going to increase the target. You have opportunity to be
S1: leadership here. ET cetera. ET cetera. So this is really
S1: how you create accountability in your culture. The accountability is
S1: is not. The the culture and the lack of accountability
S1: in it is the overarching problem. But the solution is
S1: becoming a training and development organization because your organization, in
S1: order for it to grow, has to constantly be updating
S1: its existing base, its existing process documentation so that you're
S1: not held captive by team members who are unwilling to
S1: be accountable so that when they do something the first time,
S1: that isn't the right thing, you're able to say, Hey,
S1: this isn't the right thing. If you're going to do
S1: this again, we're going to have to go through this process.
S1: That in and of itself should fix the accountability, and
S1: it's actually fixing for you as the business owner, your
S1: ability to hold people accountable. Because at the end of
S1: the day, it's all about you. It's about your unwillingness
S1: to hold somebody accountable. It's not actually holding somebody accountable.
S1: That's difficult. It's your unwillingness to because you know what
S1: the fallout is. So you actually have to build a
S1: business around what the fallout could look like. And the
S1: fallout is coaching, development, training and ensuring that your organization
S1: is really set up to where it can scale. And
S1: it's not command dependent on any person. No business can
S1: be command dependent and actually achieve scale or else it's dependent, right?
S1: You can't scale and have every single role be in
S1: everybody's heads. You can't you can't sell a business like that.
S1: You can't open multiple locations like that because other people
S1: would need to be trained. And if a high performer
S1: is in an existing role, no high performer wants to
S1: stay in the same role forever. So at some point
S1: it's in their best interest to document these things so
S1: they can train somebody else so that they can elevate
S1: into this next role. So, ladies and gentlemen, that is
S1: how you fix your accountability issue. If you enjoyed this podcast,
S1: don't forget to subscribe. I love seeing your stories about
S1: the podcast and your key takeaways. I repost many of them,
S1: so if this one helped you help a fellow business owner,
S1: help a fellow leader, share this content and I'll see
S1: you next time.