I believe that success happens because we plan for it to happen and when we take the time to create a great plan, great things can happen. So what goes into a plan, simply this, it starts with research. We need to see what we’ve done in the past, what worked, what hasn’t, what others have done and when you start off by researching it, then you’re ready to put that plan together.

The next thing we need to do is we need to write it, we need to write it down. A great plan is in writing because then you’re committed to it, then you’ll buy into it and you have something to fall back on when times get tough.

The next step is review it, review the plan, review the plan yourself but also, have others review the plan. Other people that have success in the areas that you’re trying to be successful can see things that you’ve overlooked, can find loopholes and can help you create a great plan and get the results that you want.

And the last step, implement it, make it happen. Don’t sit around and wait. Make it happen now because a great plan that’s implemented can yield significant results. Most great companies can come up with a plan but they have trouble implementing that plan. So focus on being accountable to implement your plan, get it done and achieve what it is that you are trying to achieve.

We had a phone call and he was a really nice guy. Guess what? During the call, I tried to serve him and give him some ideas and information that would be of benefit to him, like join the National Speaker’s Association, get involved, learn all about the professional speaking. Through the conversation it turns out that several of his key clients or clients that I have either had a relationship with or looking to build a relationship and in return, he’s offered to help me into those doors that I have been having trouble getting into.

It’s great when someone connects you with someone new. You build a new relationship because the relationship is like a bridge; you never know where it’s going to take you. I always look to build new relationships. But wow, what a powerful concept of introducing people that you know to others that you know and helping them build relationships. Because guess what, they’ll think of someone that you should know, that you should meet and then you will be building new relationships because of their efforts on your behalf.

Think those people who make a difference in your life and stay in touch and build those relationships. And look for others in your life that you can help connect to help them build new relationships and over time, you’ll find yourself building new relationships, building new bridges, opening new opportunities and going places that maybe you wouldn’t have been able to go without the relationship.

Stop and think about it, think about everything great that’s happened in your life, in your personal life, in your career, as a leader, I bet you, you can’t think of one great thing that’s happened, one thing, one accomplishment that you have really wrapped your hands around, that you’re proud of that there wasn’t a relationship involved.

Relationships are really the bases for everything great that we’ve achieved and we need to renew our efforts, connecting people with other people and connecting results with new people so that we build our relationships and we have the opportunity to achieve what he have the ability to achieve.

I sort of wondered, do we ever take an MRI on our value system, do we know what’s going on in there? I talked to people all over the world and asked them what their values are, and while most people know what they stand for, they have to stop and think about it, they have to figure it out and I wonder sometimes, if they’re figuring out the values of where they want to be or where they are or whether they are looking at their actions and what they do and then interpreting values from that, I think we should be able to articulate our values, very quickly, very sincerely because we thought about it, because we know what they are, because when we are that familiar with our core values then when we make decisions, we make better decisions if we based these decisions on our values.

So how do we do that? Well, one of the steps is to look at other people we admire, heroes in our life, people that have done amazing things and look at what their strong attributes are. Make a list, pick three people and list all the attributes of those three people. And then look at those attributes and compare yourself and say, how do I rate? Am I one, low, ten, high, 8, pretty high and rate yourself on those same attributes.

Then go back through that list and pull for yourself a list of values that you believe describes who you are and who you want to be. After you put that list together, trim it down to three values, three values that fit together, that work together, three values that describe how you interact with other people, how you treat them. And also three values in how you treat and act towards yourself.

And a value can be interpreted differently in how you act towards yourself as how you act towards others. I’ve done this process many times with groups around the world. I’ve been doing it for myself for years. My three values are integrity, respect and significance. And I look at those three values in how I treat myself and I look at those three values in how I interact with other people as well. And when I need to make a decision, I try to always come back to those three values.

Being accountable in our life to our self is ultimately being accountable to our core values. Create your own core value. Know your value statement. Be able to share it with others and most importantly, hold yourself accountable to it. It’s not always easy but the return is worth the effort.

Number one, he said, embrace change even if change slaps you on the face, to embrace it, that it’s good. I believe that well, all change may not be good, that all good comes from change.  So we need to look for ways to improve, look for ways to grow, look for new ways of doing things whether it’s new technology, new systems or a new attitude, change is what’s going to get us from today to the success of tomorrow.

He also said that we need to work long, meaning that we need to work as long as we can work and that we need to save our money because it could come in handy in his words. Well, certainly the money will come in handy but I think it’s more important that we look at what work is all about.  It’s more than just work. I think it’s about having meaning and purpose in our life. When we work at something, when we’re trying to achieve something, we have meaning and purpose, it keeps us alive, it keeps us young, it keeps us going. That work may be for money but that work may also be as a contribution, it may be serving others; it may be helping our community.

Being involved in a vocation, being involved in work will keep us young, will give us the energy we need. Every day of our life, it gives us meaning and purpose.

And the third thing that Walter shared was that, we need to look to give to our friends. The more that we can give to them, the better our life will be. And that’s such a true statement because if we look to give, we enhance and help other people’s lives and as we do that, we grow in the process. And you know what, even if we don’t do it for this reason, one day, there’s people out there that will look to help to give to us when we need that help.

So we need to look to embrace change. We need that meaning and purpose through our work and we need to look to give and to help to others. It will give us a hopefully longer life but certainly a more productive and more rewarding one.

Expectations help drive results. Your team members will work towards those expectations that you together created. Those expectations will motivate them, it will give them a guide, it gives them a bar or a target to aim for. It’s critical that when we establish expectations that we look at three pools of knowledge.

One is that we need to look at our past history. Our past history tells us what has been done but it doesn’t necessary tell us what can be done. So therefore the second pool of knowledge we need to look at is the past history of our competitors, other people in our industry, because when we compare their historical information with ours then maybe we get a new revelation, we see new light, we understand that maybe there’s a possibility that we have not tapped into yet.

The third pool of information is the past history or experiences of others in other industries, industries that may not seem related to ours but in fact, have many functions that are similar to ours. I knew someone once in a hospital that actually benchmarked luxury automobile dealers because luxury automobile dealers have legendary post sale service and the hospital wanted to bring this type of post sale service into their operation as well.

So what industries can you look at, can you study, can you benchmark and learn from how they do things to then better judge where your expectations should be set. Once you set the proper expectations, you’re probably going to get the proper results.

Expectations also work another way. They work to temper the judgment of the people that work with you, specifically external plans, customers, because what happens when they engage you is when they walk in the door, whether that door is literally the front of your building or on the internet, they have expectations. If you haven’t properly managed those expectations, establish them properly in their minds, then you might not be achieving or reaching the expectations they’ve set for you and then you’ll look like you’re doing a poor job.

When Apple releases a new product, whether it be an Ipad or an Iphone, they have a line on the store with several hundred people there. Those expectations are set in the minds of their customers. If you go on, on kick off day when the new product is released, you know what you’re getting into and you don’t mind because it’s the expectation that you have in your head.

If on the other hand, you would have shown up at Apple or at any other business and there are several other people in line and you had to wait hours, you would become irate, we would walk off, we would leave, we wouldn’t want to do service with them because our expectations were that we will be able to walk in, buy what we wanted and leave.

It’s critical that we use the establishing of expectations to communicate properly with our customers so they know what they’re going to receive and that way, when they do receive it, we look great.

Studying expectations is a higher form of communications, one that we need to master so that we can be accountable to build organization and achieve what it is that we are trying to achieve.

First of all, know your strategic intent. Know what it is that you want to achieve because when you know what you want, it’s easier to figure out how to do it.

Next, stay focused. Stay focused on the strategic intent and stay focused on your right things, those activities, those tactical elements that will help you achieve on that strategic intent. Also, you need to inspire those around you because if you inspire those around you, they will rally to your cause, they will want to be a part of what it is that you’re doing and they’ll want to help you be successful.

The next thing, you super achievers don’t take no for an answer. They are persistent, they figure it out, they don’t leave it up to fate, they find a way to make it happen. And when they run into roadblocks, and we all run into roadblocks, they come up with a way around.

Super achievers don’t stop at success; they look for the next success. They want to build on that and not only that, they look to move beyond success for significance because significance is about meaning and purpose. Sure, we can accumulate money, wealth and riches but how we invest that, how we use that to deliver value, to create purpose in our life, the lives of the others around us, the people that we serve, in the business, the internal and the external stakeholders, at home with our families and our loved ones, it’s the significance that we deliver that ultimately determines how successful we are and whether or not we are a super achiever.

As leader, we need to know that people want to succeed. Our job is to help them succeed. We need to provide them the tools that they need, the investment, the training, and then we need to get out of the way. We can’t micromanage the process; we need to let them do it. We need to stay engaged, we need to be there as a resource but we need to let the people around us achieve success the way that they need to achieve success and then everyone grows.

As a leader, as an accountable leader, we need to have a strong vision because that strong vision attracts others to us. You see when we have a strong vision, one that is painted with vibrant colors, others want to be a part of that vision, they want to achieve that vision, they want to be on that same mission. And when you have enough people dedicated to that vision, it’s going to happen.

The fourth thing that accountable leaders need to know is that expectations drive results. We need to be accountable to establish the right expectations. And then we need to be accountable to communicate those expectations. When those expectations are communicated people naturally will want to achieve at that level or higher, and when that happens, we’ve got a great thing going.

The fifth thing that accountable leaders need to know is that when we care about people, people will care about us. We need to show that we do care about people not just in the work sense but in their personal life and what’s going on and the challenges that they’re facing. And when we care about people and we show that, then they’re there to help us achieve what it is that we’re trying to achieve. It’s an important piece of the puzzle to have that in place.

And the sixth thing that accountable leaders need to have in place, well, we need to say thank you. We need to recognize those people who are doing a great job and let them know we appreciate it. And one of the best ways to do that is not just to say thank you to them, which is important but to say thank you in front of others so that they realize that we want the world to know they’re doing a great job. When we say thank you and give them that appreciation, they’ll only want to work harder.

When all six areas are covered, when all six areas are in play, then we become an accountable leader. We build an accountable organization and we achieve what it is that we’re trying to achieve.

The first is when your actions don’t align with your words. If you say you’re going to do something, then you need to do it. People need to know that you’re responsible. People need to know that you will come through, that you are accountable for the commitments that you’ve made. And when people see that, then they are naturally going to want to be accountable to you. They are going to want to be sure that they will fulfill their promises, to show up on time, to get the reports done on a timely basis.

It’s critical that our actions are in alignment with what we promised, with the words that have come out of our mouth. And when we do that, then we know we’re not going to erode our personal accountability.

The second thing is when leaders feel that they don’t have to follow the same system or the same rules that everyone else in the organization follows. You see as leaders, if we create our own rules, our own procedures, then we lose accountability and the faith of those people around us. Are we better than them? Are they not up to our standard? Why do we get a special set of rules? I think it’s critical that we know these systems. That’s first of all that we know the systems that are in place and that we follow those systems and that we show everyone that we’re not above any system, rule or regulation within the organization.

It’s critical to maintain that because then, we show everyone that we want them to work at the level that we’re working and we’re willing to work at the level that they’re working.
And the third thing that you can do to erode your personal accountability is use excuses or justifications to support your choices. We all make choices. At the end of the day, when you strip away our money, our clothes, all of our material possessions, our home, our car, our family and our friends, the only thing that we truly own are the choices that we have made in our life.

When we don’t have to make excuses for those choices, when we don’t have to make justifications for those choices, then we are living an accountable life and we are showing the people that are around us that we are accountable for our choices, that we’re going to make good choices that will be based on our values and that we will stand behind them. Sometimes that’s difficult but when we show that we are accountable for our choices and we don’t use excuses and justifications, we’re not eroding our accountability.

Avoid these three traps and you’ll be living an accountable life and be an accountable leader.

I think there are three great reasons. The first reason: expectations. I think sometimes players have expectations that they’re going to win and they take the opponent too lightly. They don’t plan properly. They don’t do what is necessary. It’s a trap that’s easy to fall into. On the other side of the coin, the expectations are hey, we’re going to have a tough battle but we’re going to find a way to win. And so they set their expectations at a level that drive their actions.

This leads us to number two:  work ethic. I think one of the reasons the underdog wins is work ethic. Their expectations drive their work ethic in their practice to where they outwork and out-hustle. They just want a little bit more. It’s hard to win day in and day out. But when it comes down to one game, when it’s single elimination, and it’s all on the line, why wouldn’t you work your hardest? Why wouldn’t you try with all your might to get that ball before it goes out of bounds?

The third reason the underdog wins:  good coaching. A good leader is there to help the team grow and achieve and accomplish goals that maybe, before that point, were not possible. But now, moving forward, are possible. Great leaders inspire those around them. Great leaders help bring everyone together. Great leaders know how to tap into the skills of each individual to build a team where all the skills together help you achieve what it is that you’re trying to achieve.

Ultimately, it comes down to building great leaders within the organization and empowering everyone to go out and perform at their best. Then the underdog becomes the winner. And guess what? Next time, they’re not the underdog.

It’s the same in business. Every move you make could lead to a growth and a success moment or it could lead to your demise. Why not make that supreme effort and make sure you come out on top?

What does that mean to you? Simply this. They’re reinventing their business. Netflix realizes they cannot stand still if they want to continue to grow and dominate and be the ones that are the game changers in their industry. How are you reinventing your business? Are you reinventing the products that you sell? Are you reinventing the services that you provide? Maybe you should reinvent the way that you engage your customers, the way that your clients work with you to receive those services or products.

There are so many different ways to look at your business and look for reinvention ideas. Reinvention is invigorating. It keeps you energized and positive about your business. It also tells your clients and your customers that you are not going to sit there and be like everyone else, that you are leading edge, that doing business with you is going to be successful. It’s going to be profitable for them because you’re not just going to do it the same old way that everyone else is.

Look to reinvent your business. Look to be the game changer in your industry and you’ll be accountable for your business’s success.