How Do I Get 1% Better Today?
THE ANSWER: Achieve results.
Back on Day 71, we talked about the two primary roles of a leader: build trust and achieve results. We then spent several days breaking down trust through Character, Competence, and Connection. Today, we move to that second responsibility of leadership—achieving results.
Here is something every leader needs to understand: You cannot push people any further than they trust you. Elite coaches and leaders can be demanding because they have earned the right to be demanding. They have invested in people, demonstrated competence, shown character, built connections, and established trust. Trust gives you the ability to challenge people, but leadership can’t stop with trust. Eventually, trust has to produce results.
Brian Kight teaches that achieving results requires three disciplines: Clarity, Accountability, and Support. Think about those three words in relation to your team, business, family, or even your own life.
Clarity answers the question, Where are we going? People can’t execute a standard they don’t understand. They need to know what winning looks like, what is expected, what matters most, and what we refuse to compromise. Great leaders don’t make people guess. They make the important things unmistakably clear.
Then comes Accountability. Once we’ve clearly established the standard, we have to hold ourselves and others to it. Accountability isn’t punishment; it’s refusing to allow people to consistently operate below what they’re capable of becoming. Great cultures eventually reach a place where accountability isn’t just coming from the coach, boss, or leader. Teammates hold teammates accountable. The culture begins to protect the standard.
But accountability must be accompanied by Support. If we’re going to demand a high standard, we also have a responsibility to provide people with the coaching, resources, encouragement, feedback, and opportunities necessary to reach it. Leadership isn’t simply saying, “Get it done.” It’s saying, “This is our standard. I’m going to hold you to it, and I’m going to help you reach it.”
Think about any result you’re trying to produce right now—better culture, greater commitment, more wins, stronger relationships, improved character, better execution, or a deeper sense of purpose. If you aren’t getting the result you want, inspect the system before you blame the people.
Maybe everyone doesn’t understand exactly what is expected. That’s a Clarity problem. Maybe they understand the expectation, but nobody consistently holds the standard. That’s an Accountability problem. Maybe the standard is clear and accountability is present, but people haven’t been given what they need to succeed. That’s a Support problem.
Every aspect of your organization is influenced by these three disciplines. Clarity tells us where we’re going. Accountability keeps us on the path. Support helps us get there.
So today, look at one area of your life, team, or organization where you’re not getting the results you want and ask yourself a simple question:
What’s missing—Clarity, Accountability, or Support?
Find the gap. Fix the gap. Achieve the result.
Never Stop Getting Better.
John Perry
Source/Influence: Brian Kight, Culture Guru