The Epic Operating Tempo That Will Soar Mediocre Teams Into Greater Results
"The lack of consequences in any system will hurt the whole, and this is where a lot of managers fall short."
Managing sucks, as Jody and Cali explain it, because managers don't manage the right things. They get sucked into the vortex of unimportant, which drains their energy and pisses their teams off.
But, it's not complicated—easy for me to say now.
I've been building an eight-figure international aerospace firm for fifteen years, with a goal of $100,000,000 once we acquire and integrate our group of companies. But in the early days, it was rough (it still is some days).
That goal seemed impossible when I was disorganized, unfocused, and hired the wrong people to try to produce the right results.
I let the demands of the day or my emotions suck me away in a tide of distraction, which also distracted my teams.
What's essential for any great team is to focus on the few things that matter the most and to ensure alignment and progress on those few things companywide.
Everyone loves to set ambitious goals, but goals without the correct actions are just dreams. You have to set clear goals and reverse engineer them to success. You do this by establishing a cadence to see those goals to fruition.
That's why The Accountability Cadence (which I'll get to in a moment) is crucial to aligning the team and having the right conversations—sometimes difficult conversations.
Accountability Isn't a Once-a-Year Thing
Accountability is something that happens, every-single-day.
Managers plan and then regularly talk about where results are headed, how key metrics look, and what's happening with clients. To effectively hold people accountable, the goals and metrics must be clear.
Once the key metrics are in place, the individual team members must take the initiative to keep managers updated about progress, how things are going, and where they need assistance.
Work isn't an adult day care—it's about producing a level of results.
When you manage results, it also exposes underperformers or deadweight, which you need to pluck and prune from your garden.
As a manager who keeps their team accountable, remember:
Express concern with someone's work directly with the employee: "I'm worried you're not going to hit your goals..." You do this in private—executing an adult conversation.
Next, look for the achievements of performance-related outcomes and recognize those people in public. Celebrate their wins—and let everyone see them bask in the glory.
Accountability Mistakes
One of the biggest failures of leadership is not holding individuals accountable for the results managers hired them to produce.
But when results suffer immature managers panic:
Let it slide...let it slide...let it slide...passive hint...explode!
A strong leader follows a respectful but direct pattern instead:
Direct, clear, professional, persistent, 1..., 2...
So, before you build any operating cadence, you must avoid these costly accountability mistakes:
Unclear handoff: You can't hold someone accountable when the handoff isn't clear and concise.
Dropped deliverables: Deliverables must be captured systematically.
Inaccurate or hidden assumptions: Most people will need more context than you assume they know. "This customer is a high-margin account, so we must deliver on time and WOW them."
Lack of follow-through: Not following up with how and what people are accountable for.
A culture of blame, excuses, and defensiveness.
Treating your team like children:
Don't let them off the hook.
Don't have a low belief in what they're capable of doing.
Don't protect them from low-level mistakes they can learn from.
Hold your team accountable—period.
The Annual Accountability Cadence
The Annual Accountability Cadence is an operating tempo that breaks down a year into its core functions and priorities.
With a good cadence, the team will be dancing to the right tune. But when they don't, the marketplace will punish them by throwing rotten tomatoes and booing them off stage.
Let's avoid the embarrassment.
A tempo ensures your team is focused on what matters the most by building discipline in their day, focus in their weeks, and execution in their quarter.
Teams can get easily distracted by noise, which pulls them away from the things that matter the most. The cadence helps leaders establish great priorities, ruthlessly execute them, and check in with progress regularly.
You don't need to do more; you must do better on what matters.
Here's how The Accountability Cadence works at the company and team levels (I use sales as the team example).
It's important to note every company cadence will vary to some degree; the key here is the idea and structure of breaking the tempo down from a yearly vision to daily execution.
Company Example
Annual:
At the start of every year, we hold an annual kickoff that reviews our Company Playbook (Vision, Mission, & Values) and our yearly theme and plan. We also conduct a separate sales team kickoff where we review our annual business development theme, vision, mission, sales principles, and priorities.
Quarterly:
Before the start of every quarter, leadership, teams, and individuals conduct a quarterly review. This builds accountability for the priorities that were supposed to be achieved in the prior quarter.
Conduct a quarterly kickoff where the team reviews the quarter wins, the lessons, and the upcoming quarter's team Objectives and Key Results.
Monthly:
The leadership team meets every month to review company KPIs and financials while setting the course for the upcoming month:
Core KPIs
Income Statement
Balance Sheet
Cash Flow
Budgets
Every month, the CEO will also send the entire team an update report that covers the following:
Top of mind issues.
How we're doing towards our quarterly KPIs and OKRs.
Key things to read, watch or listen to.
Weekly:
So much happens in the week.
You're condensing your planning at the annual and quarterly levels and determining how to progress on them with weekly priorities.
These are the weekly cadences that matter:
Weekly Individual Check-Ins where each team member answers publicly:
What's the status of your quarter OKRs?
What progress did you make on this week's priorities?
What went well this week? What were some key victories?
What challenges are you facing? Where are you stuck?
What are your priorities for next week?
Routine One-on-Ones with managers and direct reports. In the one-on-ones, the manager focuses on accountability conversations around individual KPIs, priorities, and coaching.
Scheduled Subject Matter Expert Coaching or cross-training. Here, team members meet with experienced team members to learn deeper or to be trained in different areas so they understand how everything connects.
Daily:
Each day, individuals from different teams report the start of their day and the end of their day:
Start of Day Virtual Huddle
Good News:
1
2
3
Today's Priorities:
1
2
3
4
5
End-of-Day Virtual Huddle
What I worked accomplished:
1
2
3
4
5
A few stuck that are challenging me:
1
2
3
Sales Team Example
The sales team will have a different operating cadence that executes in conjunction with the company cadence. Here's a great example from Anthony Iannarino in Leading Growth:
January 1: Annual Sales Kickoff: Theme and Plan (90 minutes)
January 2: Territory and Account Plan Reviews (60 minutes per salesperson)
Weekly: Pipeline Meeting (30 minutes each Monday with the Sales Team)
Ad Hoc: Coaching Client Meetings (as needed, but often)
Bi-Weekly: Opportunity Reviews (60 minutes per salesperson)
Bi-Weekly: Coaching (30 minutes per salesperson opposite to their opportunity review)
Weekly Sales Training: (25 minutes of training or salesperson-led opportunity review)
More meetings aren't better, but meetings that hold individuals accountable for their results and help coach, train, and give them the resources to succeed, are crucial.
Accountability requires a cadence. This cadence allows teams to inspect progress, make adjustments, and re-focus on what matters the most—before it's too late.
Develop your company cadence: Start with the year, plug in the quarters, and narrow it down to the day.
