January 25, 2018

Accountability Charts 101 [Ep 32]

33 minutes

If you’ve never built a team before, or if you’re thinking of building or reshaping your team, you need to listen to this week’s episode of The Flip King CEO. Joe Evangelisti breaks down accountability charts, a key tool for businesses so everyone is on the same page. The chart shows that everyone on a team has a certain process or activity they are responsible for, and a certain key performance indicator (KPI) that they have to bring to the team. If you’ve never heard of an accountability chart, or you’re not quite sure if they’re right for you, you need to listen to this week’s episode.

The difference between an org chart and an accountability chart

As Joe says on this episode of The Flip King CEO, an accountability chart is not simply an org chart, showing a “chain of command” within the company. While there will, of course, be people at the top (maybe that’s you as the CEO of your business), it’s not built to simply show who answers to whom. But the chart isn’t about showing who’s at the bottom or at the top, it’s about showing them they are responsible for something important, imbuing them with a sense of purpose and contribution. Ideally, the accountability chart will have some sort of metric to show just how much each person is contributing to the team. Really, this is a must for any team, and Joe breaks down a basic chart and the one he uses for his team on this episode.

Breaking the accountability chart down into three parts

A very simple accountability chart will have the CEO or visionary at the top, to provide the vision for the company. Below her or him will be the COO, who’s actually implementing and managing all of the systems to achieve that vision. Below every COO will be a finance wing, an operations wing, and a marketing and sales wing. Almost every company will break down into these three components. That doesn’t mean you have to have people filling up each wing: Your CPA could be your finance team if you’re still a small operation. You might even be the one person in all of the boxes for now. What’s important here is to visualize how your team would work, and Joe helps you do that this week.

GWC: Gets it, wants it, has the capacity to do it

One of the things you need to think about when you’re hiring someone for your team, or moving someone into a new position, is the acronym GWC: Gets it, wants it, and has the capacity to do it. It’s not just a buzzword, it’s actually a way to hire and review employees. And GWC is a two-way street, sometimes people get it and want it, but don’t have the capacity. Sometimes people get it and have the capacity, but don’t want it. So being able to look at a team member through the GWC lens is actually a huge help to business owners, and Joe breaks it down even further on this week’s Flip King CEO.

Visualize growth

If you want to grow your business, you have to envision what it’s going to look like. And even if you’re the only employee right now, you need to draw out what you think your business should be. And then you can take that, look at where you are weakest, and immediately identify your first hire. The accountability chart is such a crucial tool for visualizing and mapping your company, and for understanding how each and every team member is contributing to the business as a whole. If you’re even thinking of expanding your team, you can’t miss this episode of The Flip King CEO.

Outline of This Episode