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Most organizations get performance metrics all wrong. They wig out their team members because they don’t have the confidence that they can move those needles in the right direction. They’re not properly tied into profit, and they’re oftentimes lagging indicators instead of leading indicators, and rarely are they stage appropriate. So I know many people and many organizations have had KPIs or critical drivers for many years, and they haven’t made that work because what happens is people lose confidence as opposed to building the confidence and feeling like a superstar because they were given the right metrics at the right time, aligned with blended learning.

It all just came together. Cause we all just want to go home and call our mothers and say, “Mom, I rocked it today.” Right? That’s the human condition: we all want that outside affirmation that we’re doing good work.

And yet most people have the wrong performance metrics, and it’s defeating them as opposed to building them. An example of that would be if you have a salesperson and you’re asking for their sales on something that has a long sales cycle, that’s a bad metric because it takes a long time to move that metric. They’re feeling bad about themselves as they’re not hitting it. They’re not feeling any sense of accomplishment.

If, however, you give them the metric of sales stages on these deals, so they feel like they’re moving it along and making good progress, those leading indicators move those lagging indicators because we all feel better when we move along. It’s kind of like why people play games. People will play on their technology for hours in the evenings to accomplish something with their technology. They want to see that they’re progressing a little bit more than the last time. That’s the game that we’re playing in the workplace to help people psychologically win and really become the masters they’re capable of being by giving them the right technologies to get them there.

Based on our unique national study focused explicitly on culture, there are a number of statistics that you really need to understand.

Did you know that seventy-five percent of American workers think that they perform in the top ten percent of their company or of their field? And get this: sixty-eight percent think they work harder than most of their coworkers.

I think we have a problem here.

Seventy-five percent can’t possibly perform in the top ten percent, yet that’s what they think or believe. Misperceptions like these need to be addressed, and your employees must get real about what is expected of them and how they are doing in their respective roles.

If not, well, how can you ever think that they’ll perform up to your expectations? How will you ever tie their efforts into profitability for your business?

Without proper guidance, employees don’t have the tools or skills needed to evaluate and modify their own behaviors realistically.

What’s the result? Big time busyness, low productivity.

So get clear yourself and make it clear for everyone else. Now get ready for a wake up call.

This one is, or should be, more than a little scary. A recent national study uncovered that fifty-eight percent of working Americans think doing average work is acceptable. Only sixty-eight percent think that doing below-average work unacceptable. Fifty-eight percent think that too many employees strive to be average rather than excellent.

This paints a picture of the current reality in too many companies. Even when employees yearn for a high-performance culture that challenges them to become better, when people feel that it is acceptable to perform at or below average, it takes the wind out of the sails of the ambitious go-getters who are essential to a successful business.

On the other hand, when expectations are clear and well communicated, you have clear metrics of performance. This facilitates accountability, and everyone’s sales will be filled with the winds of success.

Stand by for our next video, where we will talk about the dangers of negativity and the one deadly sin you must know about how to eradicate gossip.

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Let’s talk about the language of accountability.

When we ask people to be accountable to do certain things, let’s be clear with them about what we expect, but also that that is exactly what we expect, and we expect it to be completed.

Most people are exhausted at the end of their workday, and part of the reason they’re exhausted is they never know if they can trust John to do what John is supposed to do, Julie to do what Julie is supposed to do, and Tim to do what Tim is supposed to do. And when that’s happening, you’re going to go home at night exhausted.

But if I know how to go to John and Tim and Julie, to each one of them, to say, “John, so by Tuesday at two o’clock, you’re going to have this report turned in, and it’s going to have the three columns. It’s going to be laid out this way, and the outcome will be whatever. And you’ll bring it to me a first draft on Monday, so I can sign off that it’s going the right direction, and the completion will be by two o’clock on Tuesday. Is that clear? Is there any reason why you wouldn’t be able to hit that obligation and that commitment?

“Good. I’m going to hold you to that commitment.”

And now, Julie, notice how when we speak with authority—and authority doesn’t mean that you have a higher-than-their position. Maybe you’re talking that way to your manager.

Maybe you’re talking that way to the CEO with a smile on your face, but you’re asking for what you need, and they will respect it when people ask from you in a way that they’re clear on what’s expected, and they know this is a person not to be messed with. They’re getting stuff done. They don’t want me to let them down because they don’t want to let somebody else down.

And when we create that as the common language within the organization, miracles begin to happen.

Now I know, I know, I know there’s no pixie dust going over my head. It’s not like I live in this fairy-dusted land where everybody believes that these impossible things can happen. It doesn’t happen overnight.

But just because it isn’t happening everywhere in your organization doesn’t mean that you can’t be at the core of starting it within your organization.

And start it you will, because you’re going to feel awfully good about yourself because you’re going to go home at night and go, “What to do with all my spare time?” Because I have expected from each person what I’m planning to receive from them. I’ve spoken to them in a way that they understand that I expect it, and I’m holding their feet to the fire because if they don’t do it, I’m going to go, “John, I know you made a promise, and around here, a promise is a basis for trust, and without trust, there’s no basis for a business relationship. You broke with the trust.

“What are you going to do to rebuild the trust?

“Because we can’t keep doing this, John. You get that, right?”

Notice how when you go into the eye of the needle and you just address it, you quite frankly might be saving John’s job. Because if he doesn’t figure this out, surely he will find out that he’s not going to fit in around here and end up having his stuff all put in a box and being walked out the door.

We have an ethical obligation to hold our team members accountable for results.

And one of the biggest reasons that people don’t is because they don’t want to be held accountable.

Well, guess what? If you don’t want to be held accountable, then somebody’s going to let you fail too.

So it’s time to figure this one out and step up and hold everyone around you accountable as you should expect them to hold you accountable too.

Beautiful.

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You gotta own it. You gotta own your job. That doesn’t mean, “Oh, I just do what’s in my job description.” It means I see the field, and I see what needs to get done, and I make those things happen. And I write up the procedures for what I do because if I’m not here tomorrow because I caught the flu, I own this job. I’m responsible for the outcomes. I can’t say, “Well, I couldn’t do it. I was sick.”

No. You can’t do that. You gotta step up, own the job, and do everything in it that’s required of it, including writing up the procedures, writing up the checklist, and making sure people around you are cross-trained to do what you’re doing. Now, if you’re thinking that silly little thought, “I would never cross-train other people to do what I could do. This is called job security,” let me assure you, if you think that way, somebody’s already looking at you from higher up in your organization and thinking you shouldn’t have job security because you’re not a team player.

Owning your job means that everything within your job, if there’s a breakdown, you’re on it. You don’t get to say afterwards, “Well, something broke down, but nobody told me how to fix it, so I just didn’t do it.”

Victimhood is the opposite of owning the job.

So figure out what you’re responsible to accomplish. Make sure that you’re finding the best, most efficient ways to get that done. Go above and beyond the call of duty in all those areas. Write up the procedures, write up the checklist, make sure your supervisor knows where they are, make sure the people around you are cross-trained, and I promise you, an opportunity at a higher pay level is ahead of you.

If you hold all the cards tight to your chest and go, “This is my job. I’ll never teach anybody. I’ll never show anybody, and boy, will they miss me when I’m sick,” you better believe they’re gonna miss you, alright, but not because you’re sick, because you’re not there anymore.

Owning your job means stepping in and being responsible for all the outcomes of your job. And you know what? It’s fun to win, so step in. Make it happen.

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This is an oldie, but a goodie. It’s called The Magic of Thinking Big. And yes, I know there are some prehistoric comments within the book, and yet wisdom is wisdom.

It’s timeless. It’s classic.

And in this book, on page two hundred and seventy-six, under “how to think like a leader,” he says: think progress, believe in progress, push for progress.

And the reason I bring that up is we’re living in a world of AI. It’s not going anywhere, and all of us are going to need to buff, buff here and scrub, scrub there on our skill sets to bring up our critical thinking skills to a higher level of thinking.

Pedestrian thinking, as my mentor always called it—which is that easy solution thinking—is not going to withstand the challenges that come along with AI, because AI will move fast and furiously in the wrong direction if not guided by wisdom and prudence.

Taking your development seriously is an important piece. I have seen so many young people move to the highest levels of their organizations. I’ve had several different people who’ve gone through the Management Development Certification course, and they go right up to the executive team level in their twenties. I’ve seen people taking some of the other accreditations, and they become presidents of their organizations within just two short years.

You’re going to need to think and grow rich by starting to understand that you’re going to have to develop your thinking.

Learn things you never thought you were capable of learning, and decide to step all in, because in this new world of AI, there will be a very bright future for those who step into it. But for those who sit back and wait for someone to tell them what to do, it’s going to be brutal.

So decide that you will think and grow rich, develop your mind, take every learning opportunity that comes at you, master the learnings, apply the learnings, and decide to be the kind of team member that you dream that you would have around you everywhere.

Decide to step all in.

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