Adam Coffey, founding partner of CEO Advisory Guru, LLC. Best-selling author of The Private Equity Playbook.
Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan. What did these two men—arguably the greatest basketball players of all time—have in common? God-given talent, for sure. But they were also coachable, had an incredible work ethic and held themselves accountable for doing whatever it took to become the best.
Case in point: In 2008 Olympic Games, the USA Men’s Basketball team was in Las Vegas getting ready to start training. But even before training had officially begun, Bryant was up at 4:30 AM, adding new elements to his workout routine. And you know what? It wasn’t long before they were following his example.
Michael Jordan had the same drive. One example of this: He created the “Breakfast Club”—those who trained from 5 to 7 AM daily–because he knew consistent and focused effort was the only way to stay at the top of his sport.
Why am I talking about basketball players in a publication geared to entrepreneurs and business leaders? Simple: Because to rise to the top of our “sport,” we need to channel the same laser-like focus and accountability Kobe and Jordan did.
Accountability comes from within.
When I was a corporate CEO, I answered to a board of directors. If I didn’t perform, I knew what would happen: I would be let go, just like a professional athlete who doesn’t perform knows they’ll probably get traded. As a result, I built a habit of internal accountability. Even though I’m now an entrepreneur, that habit is still strong within me. However, for the vast majority of entrepreneurs, that doesn’t always seem to be the case.
I’m currently working with 68 different founders in one capacity or another. Almost universally, I find the biggest problem facing these entrepreneurs is, surprisingly, themselves. As talented as they are, they sometimes struggle to keep slogging forward day in and day out, especially when things are tough or boring (or when there’s something else they’d rather be doing).
To a certain extent, I understand why. As entrepreneurs, we can wake up in the morning, do absolutely nothing, and nobody cares. We can miss our goals, and nobody will challenge us. We can have a bad quarter or a bad year, write it off, and tell ourselves we’ll start over fresh.
But ponder it for a moment, and it will quickly become clear that this mindset can lead to problems. If we don’t find a way to challenge ourselves, we risk getting into a habit of complacency that can destroy us.
Planning is the enemy of complacency.
There’s just no way around it—to survive, thrive and reach new heights, you have to find a way to maintain your forward drive. Enter accountability.
Accountability doesn’t mean you have to start work every day at 5 AM like Jordan and Kobe did. It does mean you need to create a plan and then stick to it. Luckily, the first step to achieving this goal is simple: Ask yourself what you’re trying to accomplish.
To see why this question is so powerful, pretend for a moment you’ve decided to take a road trip. Before you can get anywhere, you need to know where you’re going (which is another way of deciding what you’re trying to accomplish). Once you do, you’ll be able to determine how long it will take to get there, where you’ll stay along the way, and so on. In other words, you’ll be able to build a plan.
And here’s the thing about road trips: Once you’re on the road, you stick to the plan, right? You don’t veer off course if the section of the road you’re on is boring. Nor do you cut your trip short because you don’t feel like driving anymore. No—you execute the plan so you can get where you’re going. If you need to make adjustments along the way, you do, but otherwise, your plan is your North Star for the whole drive. You stay accountable to it.
Create accountability.
Obviously, you aren’t on a road trip here. You’re building a business. So once you’ve created your plan, how do you hold yourself accountable to it? In my experience, the best way is to surround yourself with people who will apply the pressure needed to keep you on track.
Many entrepreneurs have a lot of success joining a peer group made up of other high-achieving entrepreneurs and executives. These groups are especially powerful because their members understand the challenges and pitfalls other people are facing. As a result, they can apply the right mix of challenge, support, and accountability to help others in the group achieve their goals.
Other people thrive better one on one. If that’s you, hiring a coach or bringing in a mentor might make the most sense. They can give you personal encouragement (and hold your hand to the fire, if necessary) in a way that peer groups may not always be able to.
Still others hire an advisory board specifically to hold themselves accountable. Ultimately, whatever approach you take, make sure your plan spells out key objectives for the month, the quarter and the year (at a minimum). After all, you need something to be accountable for!
Take bold steps.
The moral of the story: By building a plan and finding ways to hold yourself accountable, you can overcome the biggest threat to your success—your own complacency.
When you shift your mindset to one of accountability, I think you’ll realize, as both Kobe and Jordan did, that failure is not an option. So, get out there and build your plan, then empower the people around you to push you so you can achieve more than you ever dreamed possible.
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