What Is Accountability in Leadership, and How Do You Build It?

0:03Welcome to Leadership DNA, a podcast for those who aspire to be a better leader. Alongside Arturo Gomez, I'm Rob Cressy. Today's topic, accountability. Arturo, what is accountability? Good morning, by the way. You know, I think it's the individual or organization's responsibility towards their actions. It also for me, you know, over the years, it's developed into, at least when I use that word, it really has developed into a commitment towards a goal or mission.

0:43Because the accountability, and that can actually be teased in terms of an individual and or organization because I think that when we really press ourselves to hold ourselves accountable, whether it's in our individual life or corporate, in our corporate team setting, it really all relates to mission and to goals. And keeping yourself completely on track and on pace as you pursue whatever it is that you're pursuing, personal and or professional. So, you know, I think it's, you've seen accountability and you see it on core value lists.

1:21It's certainly on one of my lists for a recent business that I opened up because I value it that much. And I think that it's, if you can actually establish a culture of accountability, that that is, I think that you'll see some of the best companies, teams, organizations have had tremendous success because of that culture of accountability that's been established.

1:49So, you know, I think it's, it has real, and one of the reasons that I think that it, that it finds itself on these core value lists is because it actually has real strength in its meaning, you know, so. And accountability is one of my personal core values. So this very much speaks to me. And there's so much that we can dig into this. And we talked about before we started recording how this is not sexy. It's not easy. It's not talked about a ton.

2:18What I love that you mentioned is establishing a culture of accountability. Here is the biggest reason why accountability does not happen in companies because it starts at the top. If the leaders at the top of the organization are not accountable, everything else trickles down. You can't say, go do one thing and then you're not accountable for your own actions and you don't live up to your deliverables because then all of a sudden your team is going to say, wait a second, how can they be telling me to be accountable for what they want me to do, but they're not willing to do the same. So for me, accountability is something that it's a lifestyle. It's who you are. It's a mindset. It's part of having this growth mindset DNA in you to say, I want to accomplish great things. And in order to accomplish great things, I need to be able to do what I say I'm going to do.

3:11Because otherwise you're just setting yourself back. And I think that's the biggest challenge. Accountability is so important because it's our recipe for success. If we don't do what we say we want to do, then that's not going to get us to where we want to go. No, you're a hundred percent right. And I mean, I think you, um, kind of quickly called out that it's, that it's, that it starts really at the, at the top. And so I think, you know, to me, that's the biggest thing that I've, that I've experienced and that I've seen. And again, that I can, um, draw on examples of from in, you know, in the sports world and, or in the corporate space and, or individuals that are really trying to really dig in deep for themselves. Accountability, uh, does, uh, start at the top.

3:57And, and so, but you can also, so it starts at the top, but there is an entire chain that is linked through accountability. And the second that somebody breaks that chain is when you begin to have, when you begin to have issues, but. You know, I'm actually going through, going through something right now where it's really requiring, um, you know, an immense amount of my time in commitment and forcing myself to walk the walk, you know? And so, um, and that's, and that's, I think in all stories of leadership and any place that you look where you're trying to find a story or examples of success.

4:39It's, uh, everybody taking a look in the mirror, but also, uh, pushing on team and, or other individuals to really, um, hold true to the commitment and the responsibility that everybody set out to do. And that's another, that's another valuable point. It's like, there has to be a compass, especially when you're, you know, you have to have a goal in mind. You have to have a mission and, um, you can't really start levels of accountability.

5:08If there's no structure, there's no rules, there's no specific end goal in sight that then becomes very difficult to establish that culture of accountability. But once that, you know, once that mission, once that goal is established, I think it becomes, uh, easier certainly, but, um, holding yourself accountable is never easy because no one ever really wants to have that honest conversation with themselves.

5:34And, and say, uh, well, I'm not giving a hundred percent or I'm not doing exactly what I should be doing. And so, you know, when you, when you think about leadership and that's a question that everybody in that chain of command, um, and, or individuals need to ask themselves, but it's, it's, um, you know, leaders, strong leaders and people that really are trying to, um, push the envelope to develop this, uh, culture of accountability. You actually, you, you have to essentially live in a glass house.

6:03And so, meaning that you are not afraid, um, and you have to mentor and coach and develop this idea that if you're stepping out of bounds, somebody should be telling you that. So, um, and real leaders will establish that culture and allow for that feedback loop to exist. And, and also real leaders will ask, they'll ask, how am I doing or what can I possibly do better to really bring us a step closer to the mission or the goal? So, you know, it's not an easy thing to do because again, it requires real, um, you know, honesty and commitment and actions. There's, there's so many things for us to unpack here.

6:50So one, you mentioned when someone steps out of the chain of command of accountability, what in the world do you do? Well, one of our previous episodes, you know, we talked about candor. This is where, when you have a culture of accountability, you as a leader or as a teammate, because it doesn't only have to come from the top, because if we're dealing with culture, this is how we operate. So you need to be candid and be like, listen, this is the way we do things. What's going on?

7:17Try and have that conversation and work as an accountability partner. And this is something that when I look at how I've become so good at accountability, one of the biggest game changers you can have in the world is having an accountability partner. And oftentimes we don't think about this as someone who is just there for your accountability. Certainly when we're looking at a business organization, we've got layers of management and people all over the place.

7:46So you see a natural hierarchy where you could think, oh, this is where my accountability comes. Remove all of that. So where I really learned this is when I did Andy Frisella's 75 hard mental toughness program. And I had somebody else who was doing it with me. Well, why was this important? Because when we were waking up at five in the morning, working out twice a day for 45 minutes inside and outside and doing all of these different things on day one, maybe, oh, this is awesome. But get to day 27, get to day 48. Have a really long day at work where all of a sudden you're like, I still have things I need to accomplish. I knew there was somebody else who had paid their dues and were doing the exact same things that I was.

8:32And sometimes I would just send a text of encouragement. Hey, let's crush today because you don't know what the other person might be going through. On the flip side, you could say, man, I'm really struggling with X, Y, and Z. The accountability partner is there to offer you the support because what you talked about is it's not easy to do. This is a very difficult thing.

8:55Well, if we want to ensure that we're accountable and make things happen, then let's layer another thing of accountability. So it's not just on you. Have someone there for support because that will really help prop everybody up. Totally. I mean, that's key. It's key. And I think the biggest difficulty when we talk about accountability is really when we're really pursuing things in our personal space.

9:24Because you essentially are singular. You know, and there are things, there are easy ways to cheat. You know, the only person you're cheating is yourself, right? But there are easy ways to cheat when you're really trying, whether it's I'm not going to drink tonight or I'm not going to do this or I'm going to work out or I'm going to spend some time with fans. Whatever those things are. I think it becomes very easy as an individual.

9:52And that's where those, you know, those real honest conversations and self-evaluations and, you know, this, you know, I guess we can also draw on some of the conversations we've had on self-love. And it's just making that commitment to where we want to be and what we want to do. But whether it's personal or spiritual or corporate or professional, I think accountability is a real critical part of actually moving the needle and getting to the next level of wherever it is that we want to go.

10:25And so in fostering that culture and creating that environment in a team kind of setting is really is the only thing that I've actually seen as a real strong recipe for success in anything that I've ever done. One quote that I learned along my journey that was a real game changer on all of this was how you do one thing is how you do everything.

10:54And you talked about how it would be easy for us on the personal side to cheat on things. And I think a very simple example of this is fitness, where let's say you tell yourself, I am going to do eight reps of something. But then you get to seven and you're like, you know what? I'm good. And for me, when I think about that, how you do one thing is how you do everything.

11:18If I don't do that one rep that I said I'm going to do, well, what are the other areas of my life where I'm not going to do the one thing? Because what you're doing is you're saying to yourself, you know what? It is okay for me to not do what I say I'm going to do. No one's going to see this. Does this matter that I only do seven reps instead of eight in the grand scheme of things? No. No one's going to come there and arrest me for doing one last rep. But here's the thing.

11:44It's a slow burn because maybe you just do one last rep here. And then maybe there's something else. You show up eight minutes late for a meeting. And you're like, oh, it's not a big deal. It's only eight minutes. They don't even need me. I'm not even talking in this meeting. And it slowly creeps into your head because what this ends up being is self-talk. We all have to control the self-chatter we have in our own heads. And when it comes to accountability, it's easy when everything's puppy dogs and rainbows.

12:13But real accountability is what do you do when the times are the toughest? And this is when you need to build that fortress inside of you. So I would actually say let's focus on not the cheating side, but let's focus on doing one more. So we'll use the exact same example from the gym. You say I'm going to do eight reps. Someone's going to do seven. You know what I say to myself? I'm doing one more because I know I can do one more. So my eight turns into nine.

12:42So every single time somebody else does seven, I'm doing nine. How about we rinse and repeat that over the course of 10 years? And what do you think the results are going to be? And it's an extremely important mindset if you can say to yourself, I'm going to do one more. You're now training yourself to be the opposite of cheating. You're actually saying I'm going to do more than the expectation is for me. And that's how you build in the layer of accountability because remember, all we wanted to do was eight. That's right.

13:11I mean, it's critical. And, you know, the people that have, I think the people that have had the real strong success in the corporate space, all are people that have real honest conversations with themselves and are people that we all study and we, you know, try to figure out their regimen and the way that they actually approach their success in their business. And so-and-so gets up at four o'clock in the morning or they, you know, meditate every day or whatever the, whatever the thing is, what, whatever their structure is, it requires real commitment and a level of accountability. And most of the people that you see that are, that are succeeding at really high levels in that corporate type of space are people that are, I think that are holding their personal lives in a level of accountability. That's, that's extraordinary, you know?

14:05And so I think that's super, it's extremely important and it's, it's part of the essential in terms of creating the culture in any space. And I will talk about accountability and the importance of it and the results you can get in three simple things. When you are accountable to yourself and your team, one, you are more reliable. Arturo knows I will show up every single day.

14:33You can count on Rob to do what he says he's going to do. Number two, consistency. We've talked about how important consistency is, your ability to show up every single day. So not only are you reliable, but you're consistent because you say, you know what? He's already part of that DNA of team accountability. And number three, you are going to execute better. It's just simple. You're more reliable, you're more consistent, and you're going to execute better. What do you think the results are going to be?

15:02We're not just having this conversation because we think it's a nice theory. This is something where great leaders, great teams, great coaches, they are all accountable for what they say they're going to do to get the desired result. Yeah. And you know what I'll say too, Rob, is that I think there's a real, you know, I'll call it spiritual, I'll call it emotional value that comes from these commitments, whether it's to yourself and understanding that you will always be there for these things that you are actually trying to do in your personal space. Because, you know, I think that there's, I think we've all had moments and times where, you know, we're struggling with that, with pushing ourselves to that level of accountability. And you can always find some level of unhappiness or sadness around that. And I think the other thing that you'll see is that staff and your team will generally be a lot happier when they know that they exist in an environment of accountability. So, you know, you have people that are working their ass off day in and day out, you know, in these environments on a team or in a corporate type of space. And if they come into work and they know that so-and-so is not going to bring 100% every time that they're there and somebody is not holding them accountable and that individual finds that it's easy to also not hold themselves accountable, it disintegrates the team. And it disintegrates the environment and happiness of the overall space. So, very important for this in terms of the emotional well-being of that squad or even yourself. Let's talk about how you can do it and how you can work on accountability.

16:53And let's start with someone who might be struggling with accountability because we've all been there. We are not perfect. Perfect. Accountability is a standard that we set for ourselves. But every single person listening to this right now is not 100 for 100. The key is sometimes when you recognize when you're not holding yourself accountable or doing something up to your standard, you say, wait a second, step one, I'm aware that I did not do what I say I was going to do.

17:22Number two, I am going to make it better the next time. And I think one of the biggest challenges people have is it's comfortable to be comfortable, to allow that voice inside your head to say, you know what, you don't even need to go to the gym. We're not even talking about doing eight reps anymore or seven reps. You've just said, I'm not going anymore. And for me, the key in so many things in life is to actually break it down into the micro. I want you just to focus on one thing.

17:49If you're struggling with accountability right now, say to yourself, what is one thing that I can do in my life or today or in this moment right now to be accountable? accountable and just start doing that because when you do one, that builds momentum because that gives you opportunities for the next day to say, well, I did it yesterday. If I did it yesterday, I can certainly do it today. And if you've done it in two days, boom, rinse and repeat. It doesn't have to be this giant thing where accountability means you have to run a marathon.

18:18It just means you have a contract with yourself. So let's focus on the small thing. I'm curious to hear from you. What suggestion would you have for someone who might be struggling with accountability right now? God, I think that they just need to understand that it, you know, going back even to the start of this podcast when we're talking about, you know, the value proposition of number one being that individual, you know, ourselves and having a power around being, you know, in love with yourself, but also being the best version of yourself. And I think that that accountability that you actually can't get to that point of being so strong as an individual without actually holding yourself accountable.

19:05But I think having goals and in a place that you want to be is something that is a very good starting place because holding yourself accountable has to be linked to something. So whether it's like, hey, today I'm going to get off the couch or for what reason, what is your goal? What is your mission? So I think people writing down these goals and objectives and not to overthink it because, you know, having a goal for the week, for the day, for the next few hours, I think is a great place to start. And I think we just, you know, emphasizing that at any point in your life, accountability can come in. You know, it's not something that if you haven't, if you haven't really truly been holding yourself accountable, you know, in the past, it's something that can change on any, on any given day, you just have to set the tone and you have to set the limits.

19:58And I think it's, it is something that will build or allow career opportunities. And it also really, I think will bring you spiritual opportunities in terms of being happy, being happy with ourselves and where we are in life, I think is really driven by ourselves holding our, you know, holding ourselves accountable to getting those things and, or pushing ourselves and at least contributing and doing a hundred. Yeah.

20:27You're going to be more proud of yourself. You're going to be more confident. You don't need pats on the back. This is your own internal dialogue with yourself. Or you're going to say, you know what? I'm happy that I did nine reps at the gym because that was amazing. And I think about another quote that I really like, it was the only way to change is to change. And so often we sit there and in our heads, we're trying to figure everything out until you get to a point where you say, I've had enough. I'm changing.

20:56I am going to put my shoes on and go for a walk. And it happens in an instance. So you talked about it. This can, you can change your accountability immediately just by taking one single action. And here's a few other suggestions for you in terms of what you can do to work on accountability. As I mentioned before, find an accountability partner. If you've never done this before, this might feel a little bit uncomfortable, but trust me, I actually did this.

21:23I'm big into accountability partners and I actually let my wife know about this. And she started a fitness challenge with her friends via text message where they were going to work out X amount of times over the course of the month and check in. None of them have ever done anything like this before, but a crazy thing happened. It worked because one girl all of a sudden started working out and she posted a picture of her on the Chicago lakefront. And then all of a sudden the other girl's like, oh, it's been a long day at work, but I saw you. So maybe I'm going to go do this.

21:52It works. So my suggestion is find one friend or a group of friends and say, hey, I want to work on this thing. Who's interested in being a part of this with me? Because once again, another part of leadership oftentimes is being the person who's willing to go first because it's not often that someone's going to come to you and say, hey, will you be my accountability partner? You need to be the leader. And then the other person says, well, what in the world do we do? And you say, all right, well, you know what?

22:21What's one thing that you want me to hold you accountable for? And you're like, fitness. Cool. What's one thing you want me to hold accountable for? You're like, I want to eat better. Cool. How about we just check in every day or every now and then? It doesn't need to have to be so formal. It can be if you want to check in consistently. I've seen a ton of success with that. But you just want to know that there's somebody else there who might say, hey, Arturo, just checking in. How's the fitness side of things going? And you say, Rob, thank you so much for checking in with me. Boom.

22:50And then all of a sudden I'm like, man, maybe I should be eating better. Arturo's crushing it on the fitness side of things. So get yourself an accountability partner. If you really want to become an expert at this, go and do Andy Frisella's 75 Hard Mental Toughness Program. It's a life changer. You're going to hear me talk about this all the time. But it's by design because of the number of life skills that I've learned that we've talked about on this program from confidence and self-belief and self-chatter and grit and candor and discipline and accountability. You do something for 75 straight days, you are going to be the most accountable person in the freaking world. And then the last thing I will say is social proof. Know how I hold myself accountable. And this is actually more specific on the content side. If I'm going to create a new podcast or a video, I will go on Instagram stories and say, hey, I'm starting a new podcast. Here's day one. Why in the world do I do that?

23:45Because now I've made myself accountable to all of Instagram, to all of my friends. So when Arturo sees this, I know, wait a second. I told Arturo that I'm going to create a new podcast. If I don't do that's on me. So all of a sudden you can build in accountability just by sharing it with others on social media or in person. I'm curious, Arturo, is there anything else that you'd want to share in terms of how people can work on accountability?

24:13No, I mean, I think, listen, you brought up some really awesome points and it's, it can, it's accountability happens at the top and it happens at the bottom. So no one should ever have fear about jumping into it. Um, you know, and I think that, uh, I think the accountability partner piece that you were discussing, and I think it's, I think it's even individuals that haven't actually asked for an accountability partner. If you are somebody that really considers yourself a leader, that obligation to be the accountability partner of your team is your requirement. It's, it is the, that is what development, that is what mentorship is. That is what nurturing is. That is the check-ins that are required to find out, to make sure that the people that you trust and the people that you care about are actually moving the needle. One, 100%. And I like how you said that check-ins because you know what accountability can be? You get your team for one minute, quick little huddle, boom, boom, check-in, check-in.

25:10You're good, but you're right. Leaders, it is our role to help lift up others and hold them accountable. So I've got two books that I want to share in terms of if you want to learn more about accountability, and these are both on my must read list. Anybody who works with me, um, I recommend these books. Number one, Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink. Uh, if you've not heard of Jocko, he is pretty much the most badass Navy SEAL ever.

25:37And his book, Extreme Ownership is essentially about you're accountable for every single thing in your entire world. If someone on your team screws up, you're the leader. Did you not communicate effectively enough because they screwed up? It is absolutely incredible. And number two, Can't Hurt Me by David Goggins. This book is mind blowing. If you have never read it or follow David Goggins, he is actually also a Navy SEAL. Ironically enough, you find these people with this discipline, but David Goggins, his story was he was 300 pounds overweight, literally had the worst childhood you could ever describe. And all of a sudden he said, I'm changing. I want to become a Navy SEAL. And he literally turned himself into the Terminator. In this book, you can't read it and not be inspired to become the best version of yourself. So for me, those are two books that I've got. Arturo, do you have a book or a takeaway or an action item that you want to leave the listener with?

26:35Oh, just dive in. Just dive in. And it starts today. And as long as everybody has that outlook that, you know, 6 a.m., 5 a.m., 4 a.m., 7 a.m., 8 a.m., it's all a new day. So whatever happened yesterday doesn't matter. It's about what happens today. And it's about making that advancement towards goals and personal mission. And for me, I've got a simple action item.

27:02I want you to do one more. One more anything. So if you wake up at 5.50 in the morning, I want you to wake up at 5.49 in the morning. If you do nine reps at the gym, I want you to do 10 reps at the gym. Why? Because I want you to build that muscle of doing one more because you're doubling down on not slacking on your own accountability. And we would love to hear from you about this episode.

27:30It's something that we don't talk about a ton in terms of hearing others talk about accountability. But we want to hear about your own accountability. How do you hold yourself accountable? In what areas of your life? Do you have certain mechanisms like we do?

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