So you want more accountability...

Every business owner and business leader wants more accountability, am I right?!?

We want our teams being more productive.?

We want our growth objectives being realised.?

We want less problems to solve, less mistakes made.??

We want less regrets on our hires, less struggles to find the right people.??

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The ideal as the owner or leader??

• Stepping back from day-to-day task management and/or execution. Instead being able to take an overview and be more strategic.?
• Other members of the team stepping up and being coached up, to take positions with more responsibility and more impact.?
• Predictability with how we deliver our service – whether that is direct to customers or to other teams within the business.?
• Predictable results accordingly.?
• Financial growth, in line with our objectives.?
• Control – we like to know what is happening and when.?
• Efficiency – we can’t stand wasted time or wasted resource in general.?
• Less stress – we're good at problem solving, of course, but we don’t want to be doing it all the time.??
• The ability to take an extended holiday without getting into nervous sweats about the things we will come back to.??

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So how do we achieve such a utopia?!??

At Black & Blue, we see it as 5 steps (which we utilise in our ‘From Blue to Black Process’)?

1. Understand – how well do you and your team truly understand exactly what you and your company’s vision is? Most of the time, it’s not as well understood as you may initially think. If you asked yourself right now what your company vision looks like explicitly, would you be able to answer with absolute clarity? If not, here are some questions to ask yourself:?

• What does success look like exactly? How will you know you are there??
• Revenue goal? Number of customers? Profit target? Number of verticals? Number of markets? Unique offering for each??
• Number of team members in each department? Makes or breaks for team members???
• Core values?????
• Number of locations? Investments required? Training required??

This creates the picture which you follow to get to where you want to be. You now know what you and the team need to be working on.?

2. Share this elevated form of the company vision with your team. Explain the why. Explain the impact. For the business, for your customers and for them individually.?

3. Collaborate - Give them a piece of it. Everyone in your organisation should have a growth goal. Ask them how they can contribute and then clearly set a goal for them.??

4. Check in - Set up regular touchpoints with your team to check in with them on how they’re getting on. Don't set a goal and then leave them to it and be surprised when it doesn’t happen. Set up fail-safes – like daily huddles, weekly meetings – to uphold your responsibility of giving your team every chance at success.?

5. Hold the standard. Expectations are crucial, and these start with yourself. If you expect to hold your team accountable, you must first start by holding yourself accountable. You, as the leader, are responsible for creating the environment for success. Keep asking your teams what they need? Is there anything holding them up from being successful? What's missing for them? Are they at the right stage on the journey? Your role as a leader is to ask great questions.??

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Building a culture of accountability is challenging. Not everyone is wired to do it. If it doesn’t come naturally to you, you can of course learn and improve, but the likelihood of you ever finding it easy or even loving doing it, it’s slim. We're all great at something, we don’t have to be great at everything.??

Bringing in a partner, like Black & Blue, can accelerate this process massively AND make it less painful for you.??

If you’d like to find out more about how we can help you create more accountability in your business (less mistakes, less stress, more efficiency, more productivity, more profitability) done in the right way, in alignment with your company values and culture, reach out to us at [email protected] ??

@blackandbluebusiness