486 | The Risks and Rewards of Accountability

Chris LoCurto 0:00
How to hold others accountable while strengthening rapport with your team that is coming up next.

Chris LoCurto 0:17
Welcome to the Chris LoCurto´s 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're talking about I know your favorite topic, accountability. Listen, don't don't turn off the show. This is an incredibly important topic, which most people when they hear the word accountability, that kind of, you know, shriek back, some people have some bad memories of the stuff, you know, at least that's the gut reaction of a lot of leaders that we experience and team members that we experienced when we start talking about accountability, especially entrepreneurs, business owners, a lot of business owners became entrepreneurs, because they didn't like the accountability that they were receiving, right, and they wanted to go do something on their own. So it's unfortunate that the term accountability, which we're trying to take that term back for what it actually means that that term has had such a negative connotation for so long, we see the issue of a lack of accountability all the time, it is the number two thing that we see in every business, when we are doing strat plan. It is the number two biggest issue that we see number one being a lack of high levels of quality communication. Lack of accountability is number two, that is the issue that we see over and over and over again. So today, we're going to explore the risks and the rewards of holding others accountable. So let's dig into the actual meaning of accountability. Let's look at a few synonyms responsibility, liability, answerability reporting, account accountability is willingness to accept responsibility and to account for one's actions. That's what it is. Why do we see it being such an issue? Well, because so many people have actually use the term accountability as something to beat people over the head with, right. A lot of people accountability brings baggage with it, it's it's a lot of fear and abuse, it's become a bad word for many people, because of maybe their root system, maybe something that they experienced growing up inside of their family, right? Maybe it's their relationships that they've had throughout the years. For a lot of people. It's a bad religious environment where accountability is beating you over the head with the Bible while somebody is holding, you know, their foot back on the closet of all the things that they've done wrong, which is not again, accountability.

It could be controlling or abusive parents, it could be bad leadership that you had at one or many businesses that you've worked for team members, most likely fear accountability, because they associate it with judgment, they associate it with losing worth and not being good enough, being scrutinized, coming up short, you know, missing the mark having to do more, if you're gonna give me accountability, what does that mean? You're gonna have to give me more stuff that I have to do. There's all kinds of reasons why people struggle with this term accountability. But to give an account means that we open ourselves up to being observed or examined to give an answer for ourselves. So what's the problem with this? Well, accountability has been abused so many times by so many people, that a lot of leaders are afraid to even use the word to use it in their business to use it on their team. And when they do their employees feel like their freedoms are getting infringed, which is ridiculous, especially today. We are seeing that a lot. We see a lot of team members that are listening to the world and listening to a bunch of, you know, not incredibly smart people screaming that somebody's trying to hold you accountable for giving you money to do a job is a bad thing that they shouldn't have to do that. In fact, this isn't exactly what we're talking about. But this kind of gives you an idea Ink Magazine has some reports on where people's minds are when it comes to accountability. If your employees feel like they're under constant scrutiny, you're less likely to retain them.

Chris LoCurto 4:43
Wow. Okay, so think about that. Now, here's one of the things that we teach in strat plan all the time and our Next Level Mastermind and our klp programs. Accountability, believe it or not, will chase off people who don't want accountability. Now For a lot of you out there leaders, business owners, you may hear that and go, well, crap. That's not what I want. No, yes, that is that's exactly what you want. What you do not want is team members who cannot handle accountability. What I love about my team is that if you come on board, and you make it through the interview process, or a lot of times I will bring people on because they're struggling in life, and I'll give them a lower level spot to try and help them out. No matter where you come in. Accountability is going to either help you, or you're going to choose that you can't stay and be a part. Why is that a good thing? Because if you can't be accountable for the thing that we expect of you, if you can't be accountable for your role, should we be giving you money? Should we be paying you? Should we be putting our clients lives, their businesses, their teams, in your hands? Or having you have some sort of an effect on those very clients? No, of course not. Right? So the great thing about accountability, although it's very fearful, because a lot of leaders can't stand the thought of losing people, even if they're bad people. Many times leader feels horrible when somebody who is a terrible team member does not do a good job leaps, because it's still considered to be a loss. Well, my question for you is this. If they're not that good of a team member, if they're not doing what they're supposed to be doing, if they're not doing what you're paying them to do? Why are you struggling with losing them? Well, if you've listened to the show long enough, you know the answer to that. And it's because you're losing worth, you are feeling not good enough. Because you've lost a team member in your mind. In your mind, this loss is all on you, when many times and I'm not saying that it's not I'm not saying you are, you know, a great leader, and this person is just terrible.

Sometimes we don't lead very well and great people leave that's the time that you should really feel bad about it is like oh crap, what did I you know, what, what am I not doing well, and leading that person. So another piece from inc.com is more than half of workers would leave their jobs if their employer insisted on recording audio, or video of them or used facial recognition to monitor productivity. According to a May 2022 survey of 750 technology workers by the Washington DC based business intelligence company, morning consult. Think about that. Why is it a stroke? Now? I do not want? I don't want facial recognition monitoring me? I don't want audio and video recording of me. But I'm also somebody who bust my butt. I don't have a problem working hard. So think about it. Why would tech companies be wanting to put these things in place? Think about it. Because they don't trust their workers? Why else would you need to put in audio and video and facial recognition to monitor productivity, productivity, not to monitor the person not to see if they're picking their nose not to see if they're playing solitaire on the come? Well, it is to see if they're playing solitaire on the computer. It's to make sure that they're being productive. Why would you feel the need to do that? Very simple, because people aren't being productive. Now, whether or not it's bad leadership, whether or not it's bad team members, I don't know. I can tell you, with our clients, what we tend to see is it is a massive lack of accountability, holding the team member accountable. Because the leader is afraid to hold them accountable or doesn't understand how a lot of times, it's just the leader doesn't understand how that's allowing people to not be productive.

Chris LoCurto 9:05
When you put it in place, every single time you put accountability in place, if the person does not want the accountability, they will leave. If that is fearful for you, then you don't understand the power of getting that out of your business. And you also don't understand how much they're actually not doing in the first place. They're not doing if they can't handle accountability. There's not a whole lot of work that's getting done and you're paying them so big brother scrutinizing your every move is not what we mean when we talk about accountability is very far from it. So let me give you our definition of accountability. We talk about accountability in our business as lovingly helping people to succeed. That's what we consider accountability to be so for us, accountability isn't about ripping somebody's head off. It's about gaining perspective. It's about having tough conversations. It's about finding out What's actually going on in a situation instead of making assumptions, it's finding where people struggle and bringing them help bringing them solutions, giving them the tools they need, making sure they've got the education. It's about resolving the issues and discovering how they became issues in the first place. It's about helping people succeed. And what the very thing that you're paying them to. So think about that. If accountability, a court by the way, we describe it, by the way, if you use our definition in the way that we look at accountability, if accountability is helping somebody to do the job that you're paying them to do better, wouldn't you want it? Yeah, of course, everybody listening to this is going Yep, that totally makes sense. Well, then what's the issue? The issue is our fear of how people are going to respond when we hold them accountable. How are people going to respond when we come along and say that they need to be accountable, we know that they're going to struggle, we're know that they're going to push back, we know that they're going to act as though they're victims to a situation. And for those of us who do not like conflict, that's going to be the area that we hold up, that's gonna be the area that we don't press forward. Even if you're somebody who hates conflict, when you understand that accountability doesn't mean that you have to be a bad person. Instead, it means that you get to hold somebody to what you're paying them to. And it's their choice whether or not they do it. If they choose not to do it, don't give them your money. Right. Don't pay them. If they choose to do it. Fantastic, continue to make them successful. So remember, leadership is about helping your team to succeed, not the other way around. It's about agreeing on the standard or mutual goal, and helping your team to get there. So when we come back what you risk with having and not having healthy accountability in the workplace.

Joel Fortner 12:07
Hey, it's Joel Fortner. Here, I'm the vice president of leadership development on Chris's team and I oversee our Next Level Mastermind business coaching program. Most business owners and leaders lack a clear path to succeed in business. They question whether they're making the right decisions if they're focusing on the right things to really grow their business. If this is you, you need a coach in your life. coaches help you make better decisions, navigate uncertainty lead more effectively, and grow your business without sacrificing your life and your family. In their first year, our clients typically see an average of 67% increase in gross revenue, and an average of 138% increase in net profit and regained hours of time. Our clients stay in the program for over three and a half years simply because of the results they get. So if you're ready to run your business at the next level, and see the growth you've been wanting, then visit Chris accardo.com/mastermind. Again, Chris accardo.com/mastermind today.

Chris LoCurto 13:09
Okay, so as we start discussing the risks of holding others accountable, let's kind of level the playing field first. So some people just can't handle accountability, no matter how healthy or appropriate, so they will quit or they will leave, you have got to get to a place of looking at what you're doing for accountability. Making sure it's healthy, making sure you're doing it correctly, making sure it's not your fault, you're not beating the daylights out of somebody ripping their head off, not giving them good tools, information. So if you're giving healthy accountability, then you need to recognize that if they choose to leave because of it, that's a good thing. So this is fear driven more than anything else, right? The fear is what the fear for the person. So the fear for the leader is is that they're going to lose the person that they hold them accountable. Just think of the contradiction. I'm not gonna hold somebody accountable to something I'm paying them for. Which means that they're getting away with lack of productivity, because I don't want them to leave. I don't want to hold them accountable to something I'm paying them to do, because they may leave. Why is the reason I need to hold them accountable to make sure that they're doing the thing I'm paying them to do. And again, keep in mind, a massive part of accountability is helping somebody to succeed. Maybe you didn't give great information and accountability will point that out. Maybe they don't understand the job well enough. Maybe they don't understand their carry well enough. Maybe they don't have the right tools. So when holding somebody accountable, the great thing is, is you get to find out the areas that you did not lead them well and solve it as quickly as possible. But what's the fear with the leader that somebody is going to leave because they don't like accountability? Let them know What's the fear of the team member, accountability is going to point out that they are choosing not to be as productive as they should be. Another struggle is that people just want to stay in control of everything, right. So a lot of times a leader who doesn't want to do accountability, is afraid that they will then be out of control. So if they leave things the way they are, they're going well enough in their mind, to not do anything about it, which is a control issue, which is a worth issue. Same thing with the team member, right? If you don't hold me accountable, then I get to stay in control of how I do my day, how I do my job, you know how I do not do my job where I spend my time. So if somebody is being held accountable, and they're struggling with fear control, then they're probably going to quit, because they will become victims to the situation pretty darn quickly. So with that said, there are some legitimate risks to holding people accountable, as well as not holding them accountable. Either way, here's some of those risks, risks from not holding people accountable at all could be, your business will likely fail without healthy accountability.

Chris LoCurto 16:10
That's a pretty darn big risk. Now, why is this? Well, you're not going to grow as a team, you're not going to grow as great leaders, you're not going to accomplish the goals or the strategic objectives that you've set out. Or you're going to pay twice the amount of salary and resources to accomplish those strategic objectives. Because you're not holding people accountable. But really, if you're not going to hold them accountable, what makes you think that you're going to hit your strategic objectives, right? If you're not making sure that they're actually doing the strategy, that they're doing the pieces that are needed, hitting the goals that they need to hit, then what makes you think you're gonna hit them. Right, so that's a big piece, your team's going to be chaotic. People will not adhere to your culture, if you don't hold them accountable, I can promise you that one of the big things we see with culture is people bringing in bad cultures. And when you don't hold them accountable to the culture that you want, that you desire, then it doesn't take long for them to start implementing the bad culture that that came from. People start taking advantage of others with no consequences. If you don't hold people accountable, one thing that we see a lot, I shouldn't say a lot. But an something that is somewhat common is someone who doesn't want to do the work, discovering the people that will do the work, and getting them to do the work for them, which takes them away from the more important thing that they should be doing. Right. So if you think about personality styles, and what we teach, it's not uncommon for a deer in AI, to go get an S or a C, to do some work for them. All right, especially if it's a high s that wants to support and wants to take care and wants to help. And yet you're looking at this high s or high Seigo. And hold on a second, you've got a whole pile of things on your desk that you're supposed to be accomplishing for me, what are you doing over here?

Well, they needed help. I was just, I thought that's our culture, we just help people, yes, we do help people. But we also hold them accountable to doing their own job, right? Don't let them come over here and get you to do their job. So many times, what you will see is people and it's not just DS and eyes that are doing this, right. It's all personality styles. That's just one that I think most people can relate to very quickly. So another thing is you start to have islands and silos forming scaling actually drops back considerably, because instead of pointing all of our people in our resources in a unified direction, what we end up with, is silos, people who are only focused on their area. And the funny thing is many times a silo looks really good look at that person. They're handling their stuff, they're doing their own thing. And unfortunately, they're not operating well, the rest of the business, we're not utilizing our resources to go in the same direction. Instead, what we're ending up with is people going into what we call a shotgun approach. So instead of putting everybody in a unified direction, we are spending our resources to go in for 510 17 different directions, that is not quality, that is not good. Also, people aren't growing and being developed without accountability. So think about this. Unless the personnel keep in mind, this is not every single person now there are plenty, but our team is the type of people that are going to come in, they're going to bust it no matter what. Right, they are going to grow, they're going to develop, they're going to do a great job. And I have had plenty of people on the teams that I've led for 30 years, that were not those people and my my goal is to try and help them become that type of person, or eventually get off the team and go somewhere else. Because if you can't be the type of person who is self motivated, if you can't be the type of person who can handle accountability and do your job well then I really don't want to use the resource to pay you to do a job that I can give to somebody else who wants to come in and actually do that job, right? So what am I saying, if you are that type of person, then you're going to continue to develop, you're going to continue to grow. What we're saying here is the folks that are not being held accountable, and they're not being productive, and they're not being self motivated, guess what, they're not going to grow and be developed into the type of person that you want them to be. They're not going to grow and develop into the type of team member, leader, you know, servant, whatever it is that you're looking for, why? Because that's not their focus, right. So another risk, your team's not going to accomplish the key raising KPIs, the metrics become obstacles in the process. So instead of going after and hitting those key results that you're looking for, or being able to measure their performance, they're not going to be able to hit those. Why? Because once again, there's nothing saying that they have to, which is why care is and KPIs are a big part of what we do in every business and teaching every business. So think about it this way, it'll be like the wild wild west. Okay, that's an over exaggeration, to the extent that you're not hiring amazing people, if you are not putting in amazing people and holding them accountable, and they're perfectly fine with that, it's going to be very, very difficult. Now let's take a look at risks from actually holding people accountable. These are obviously far fewer, but people might get offended and leave, that's a risk. Sure, you might be afraid that you're going to mess up things. That's definitely risk. Absolutely, that can happen.

Chris LoCurto 21:39
A risk is that holding people accountable means that they won't like you. If you got into leadership, because people you wanted people to like you, you might consider a career change. Another risk is that you're going to damage your relationships with those you work with. Again, if that's a big fear, then you did not set up their role well in the first place and be, again, you probably shouldn't be in that role. If your concern is the relationships that you have with that person, then I would be concerned with two things who's paying you? Right? Is somebody paying you to be more concerned about a relationship with a team member? The other thing is, is why are you so concerned about the relationship with a team member who doesn't have integrity? Who can't be held accountable? Right. So um, things that you should probably be thinking about. Another risk is that you could be risking being misunderstood and things getting misinterpreted, that's definitely a possibility. That's the point of accountability. If you will do accountability, if you will hold people accountable, then a great thing happens. It flushes out the things that are misunderstood. It flushes out the things that people don't know, well understand, well, not doing well, those things start showing themselves, right, because as you dig in and find out well, how come you're not doing this the way that it shouldn't be done? Well, I don't have the right tool for that. Great, let's get you the right tool. Now that you have the right tool, how come it's not being done correctly? Well, because so and so and the other area is not doing their part. And so I can't get to it until they do great, we'll fix that. It allows you to fix all those pieces. And then at the end, if everything is taken care of that's holding back the process, you treat it as though this is leadership's issue. Leadership didn't set this up, well always look at leadership first, go solve all of those problems. And at the end, if it's still not being done, then the only thing left is the team member. Are they doing the right stuff? So to be honest, this happens. Far less than then people actually think people always think that it's going to be this huge cluster when you dig in and start holding people accountable. And I will tell you, it's actually way less than you believe it is.

It's not that bad. So more of these risks are fear based than anything. And what do we know about fear? There's two types of fear, the legitimate actual fear, you're being chased by a lion. This is something to be afraid of, you know, something's actually happening. It's legitimate. You should do something about it. The other is the one that we usually are focused on 98% of the time. And that's the fear of something that maybe might could possibly happen that we're really not even sure about. And it's definitely not happened yet. That's the stuff we need to kick to the side right kick it to the curb, because that's that's crap fear, right? That's just holding you in a bad place. Why don't we come back? What are the rewards of holding others accountable? Hey, folks, a couple of years ago, I was visiting with a client and the CEO said to me, Chris, we're not going to hit our goal. I asked him what he meant, and he said, We're gonna miss our three year revenue goal coming out of strap planned by a few months. I didn't realize it at first that he was having a little fun with me by saying they were about to triple their company in less than three Eight years, how freaking awesome is that? Folks, these are the kinds of results that businesses get by coming through our four day strat plan event. On average, we find $2.1 million worth of revenue in the next 12 months that the company was not planning on. And this event is for all sized businesses. If you're small, medium, or large, it works for every single business, because it's not industry specific. It's about gaining all the information about all the things inside of your business that are holding you back from success, and then giving you a plan and a process on how to walk that out and be successful in your business. By discovering the things that are holding you back, it helps you get to all of those goals that you've been planning on for a long time. So if you're ready to get the perspective, you need to solve what's holding you and your business back. So you can grow faster than you need strap land. To learn more, go to Chris accardo.com/strap plan. That's Chris liccardo.com/strapless.

Chris LoCurto 26:13
So what are the rewards if we're gonna hold people accountable? What are the rewards, Chris helped me with this, I've struggled with holding people accountable, give me some positives here. And I hear a lot of the negatives and everything like that, which of course, if you're listening, well, then you probably heard a lot of the positives through those those negatives, those risks. But before we dive into the rewards, let's kind of underline a bit of the heart of a leader for his or her people, right? Accountability is about the person that you're leading, not about you. It is your job as a leader to make your team successful, not the other way around. It's about helping them to get where they need to go. And helping them to grow the way that they need to grow. If you're not helping your team grow, why? What is holding you back, right? Help your team become better help them grow. But a lot of times, emotion, fear and insecurity will make you focus on you in the process. So if you are focused on you, during this accountability process, it's probably not going to go the way you think it's going to go. So if that's the case, then you're gonna miss out on the rewards. If you're fear written, if you're driven as leader, then you're going to self sabotage, and any accountability that you have is going to be just destroyed in this process. So your emotions are going to be in control. So choose, is it about you is it about the other person, if you're feeling out of control, by putting accountability in place, it's not going to work out. If you are concerned about feeling out of control, by putting accountability in place, it's not going to work out your communication is going to be garbled if it's focused on you, right. So again, what are we trying to do first, before we dig into the rewards, we're trying to figure out the things that are going to hold back the leader. If it's about you, your communication is going to be garbled. If it's about you, you'll give weird or jacked up cues to your team that happens. We actually see that a lot when somebody is really focused about themselves, their communication becomes just terrible. You'll be nervous, you'll start to go into defensive mode as you're giving accountability to somebody if this is focused on you. And you'll obviously lose the openness and objectivity that's necessary for you to actually lead quality accountability. So with that being said, what's the rewards here's why this matters. With accountability being the number two thing that we see biggest issue in every company, then putting it in place would remove the number two biggest issue that's most likely the number two biggest issue in your company. Amazing people that are ready are already a great culture fit, won't have to be held accountable as much. They're going to naturally get in line with the spirit, the purpose, the mission and the values. So think about your your interview process. If people understand on the front side, that there is going to be accountability. I will tell you this right now you will watch people move on faster in a hiring process. If you talk about accountability, you will do a really good job of getting rid of the bulk of people from entering your business that don't want accountability. Help them know up front now, understand it's an interview process so many times their immediate initial reaction is Oh, yes, absolutely. I love accountability. Accountability is my friend. When you continue to show them examples of how they're going to be accountable. If they can't handle it, guess what? They're probably going to drop out of that interview process. So healthy accountability for healthy T team members brings rewards.

This is what they look like. You won't have to have as many tough conversations with them. Hello people who hate conflict. You know, there's probably very few people listening to the show who are just like, Man, I am so good with conflict, I enjoy conflict. I doubt there's a lot of people listening to this show that, that think that way, you'll have less tough conversations, you won't have to get in there go helped me to understand what what happened here, what went wrong, how come this isn't being done. This is you know, you're supposed to be doing this, this is what we expect of you, let's sit down with your care and go over it for the 14th time this week. The more you put good quality accountability in place, and you hire Healthy People that are okay with having accountability, the less tough conversations you'll have accountability will actually help to set them up for success, this is a great thing. Now again, a lot of people think that when they first hear about the accountability, that it's like, big brother's gonna be looking over my shoulder. Here's the amazing thing. As a person receives healthy, my air quotes, healthy accountability, then what they see is that actually allows them to do their job better, they see that it actually helps them in the process. So this is another great reward. It will provide high levels of quality communication, what is accountability, communicating, making sure that things are being done correctly. So just by adding accountability into your business, your team, whatever your family, then what you've already done is kicked up the level of your communication, coaching, teaching, training, keyphrase training plans, all of those are aspects of accountability. So if you don't have a lot of those things in place, and maybe you kind of think you do, you'll be blown away at how much room you have for growth in all of those areas. When you start putting in accountability. Another reward is checking on performance will improve morale, not damage it. So a unhealthy team member who doesn't want accountability doesn't want you checking in on them, they just want to tell you that they've done everything phenomenally and receive a pat on the back. A healthy team member who's busting their butts want you to dig in and see that they're doing the job. So it actually increases morale, it doesn't damage it, the only person whose morale gets damaged with accountability. Assuming we're doing healthy accountability, let me just throw that caveat in there. The only person whose morale gets damaged with it with healthy accountability as the person who doesn't want to healthy accountability in the first place. So accountability will turn champions into greater champions. Sometimes we can as leaders, we can be so happy with the champions that we have on our team. They're not squeaky wheels, we just kind of leave them alone, right, we just we're so glad they're doing what they need to do, we just go focus on the squeaky wheels, even when you hold champions accountable, a great reward is is that it kicks up their development, it grows them more as a champion and grows them more in their roles. And actually, what they can see is that since you care, it also helps them to see that they're growing in their role, which will probably lead to a bigger role, right? So it also turns champions, integrator champions. Metrics become useful tools, they become stepping stones, not impediments, right.

So what you what you discover is, is when you use metrics for things, right, you know, how many calls have you made today? How fast are you responding to people's emails? How many times did you run this process in your area? When you start using metrics, then it becomes an incredibly useful tool. People look at the metric and they go, here's big brother again, nope, at actually becomes a motivator. You know, if I actually can handle a little bit of competition, you know, I was able to do this 20 times that I couldn't do it 21 Right. Now, again, you have some personality styles or the metric, you know, if you have a high high high C, then the metric is this is what I can do. I can show you that I did it. If you have a high D or high I, it may even be greater benefit to say can you do one more? Can you do two more? Right? So depending on the personality style, either way, it doesn't matter which personality style it is, the metric is still a great tool, a very useful tool. Some people it is great because it solidifies that they're doing a great job. Some people becomes incentive to try and do more. Another reward is they're going to thrive in a culture where there are healthy roles and Um, I cannot tell you, the folks that have that have been great team members that have moved on from our business, they've moved somewhere else, they God called them to something else. Sometimes they end up in a culture that is not like our culture, and they will respond back at year to let her go on man. You know, I'm, I'm glad I'm doing what I'm doing, I feel called to this, but I sure miss our culture, they, they really need more help in this culture. And you know, so it's also a great thing, to help somebody to recognize that when your culture is healthy, it's where they want to be. It's where they want to thrive. So very important. Also, another reward is greater performance and productivity, oh, my gosh,

Chris LoCurto 35:44
that should be like, we would think that would be the top thing, right. And yet, when you look at everything else I've mentioned, all of those things are phenomenal. Those are all great, well, but I just want a greater productivity. No, you do want greater productivity, recognize all the other pieces first. All of that is going to result in greater performance and greater productivity, you will have a much more unified team, you will be blown away. One of the funnest rewards as a leader as a business owner is that you will see your resources change, you will see the power of people who are being very productive, and doing their job the way that they're supposed to that you actually don't have to hire as many people, you'll actually be surprised that you get way more done with less payroll. When you have high levels of quality communication, when you have high levels of accountability, you'll have champions, champions get things done, those people that aren't champions will leave, you won't have that payroll, they were only working 50% Anyways. So you're paying twice as much for them anyways. So a great fun reward, after all of these other amazing things, is that you're going to see the power of your resources that you can get way more done with less resource, less payroll, less tools, less pieces of equipment, whatever it is, right? Because the people who are busting it and doing a great job, and you're paying them well, and you're giving them a pat on the back and tell them they're doing a great job, right, you're also catching them doing things right. They will love what they do, they will enjoy coming to work, they will enjoy busting it. That's what they want anyways. And the amazing thing is you will see that one person who is a champion can do twice the amount of work as to people who are not. So you will have a blessing by watching your resources not only be way better utilized, your bottom line will grow over time, you will see even if you don't raise your top line, you will see your bottom line grow over time, which surely you are going to raise your top on as well. But you will also see because of accountability people heading in a unified direction, your team, your resources, instead of being in a shotgun approach, instead of being silos, islands, all that kind of crap, which is terrible, will actually be pointed in the same direction. You will see your team members busting it together, moving in the same direction, helping each other, solving things together supporting each other, which is a powerful, powerful thing to experience. So Dr. Henry Cloud has a great quote. And it's a great goal, or ideal for us to aspire to. He says if you are building a culture where honest expectations are communicated and pure accountability is the norm, then the group will address poor performance and attitudes. So something you've probably heard me say many times, this type of leadership becomes self policing.

Chris LoCurto 39:11
If you will hold champions accountable, they will be very quick to point out when other people are not being champions. Not tattletales, not victims, hey, this isn't going the way that our culture says it should go. This isn't working out. This is affecting people in a negative way. What do we do to solve this? How do we fix this? Champions want to work with champions, champions want to have a team of champions they don't want their culture to get jacked up. They've been in bad cultures that want to keep that culture the way that it should be. So imagine a work environment where your team helps each other to succeed. That to stay accountable to standards is the culture that you get in and fix things that are broken is part of the culture, right? It's how we do things where fear is virtually eliminated, and I gotta get rid of all of it. But my gosh, you could cut out a ton. And we're failure is a teaching tool to bring improvement. Not something for somebody to lose worth on. Not something for somebody to feel horrible about not something for somebody to fear. Instead, it becomes a great teaching tool. So this is not only possible, it's necessary to create if you really want to succeed as a business as a team. So how do we create this on our business, we show them the standard, show them the standard, teach the standard, treat them with respect, help them to achieve it, lovingly help people to succeed. That is what accountability is all about. Well, folks, hopefully this has helped you today. Hopefully, this is a great topic that you're able to go and Institute immediately implement this. Immediately. You will be blown away. It's going to be tough. There'll be struggles you will see negative side effects as you move in the much greater direction of the positive side effects. So as always, take this information, change your leadership, change your business, change your life, and join us on the next episode.