Accountability is one of the most powerful tools at our disposal when we’re trying to
do extraordinary things. When you’re leading a team of people—everyone with different
goals and responsibilities—it’s key that you keep everyone on the same page, moving
toward their personal goals, professional goals, and the goals of the business.
This is an area where most leaders really struggle. It’s hard to keep everyone focused
on the things that matter most and accountable to delivering results without coming across like you’re micromanaging or intruding on people’s autonomy. In this guide, you’re going to learn how some of the most successful leaders help their people to perform at their best, every single day.
The 4-1-1—the accountability tool we use internally at Keller Williams and The ONE Thing—is a way for both you and your people to map out your most important
work for the coming year, month, and weeks. It’s a single-page document that is based on the long-term goals you’ve set, which you can work through weekly with each of your direct reports, to review the previous week and to map out the week ahead.
PREPARING FOR 4-1-1s
In order for 4-1-1s to be effective, you and your team have to bring priority to your personal and professional lives.
While it might seem irrelevant to ask your staff about their personal goals, it’s actually quite important. Showing interest in their lives outside of work and encouraging them to participate in other things that they value can significantly increase employee loyalty and engagement around the work they do with you. Oftentimes when someone leaves a good job, it’s not because of the job ... it’s because of something happening in their personal life. If you know an employee is unfulfilled in an area of their life, you may be able to guide them to find a way to improve it before it has a negative impact on their work.
And, as an added bonus, if you can show interest as a manager and help your people succeed in their personal lives, they are likely to show you loyalty in return.
Here are the questions to ask your team before you start doing your weekly 4-1-1s:
What are your personal and business goals?
What would you need to accomplish this month to feel like you’re on track for the year?
What do you need to accomplish each week such that by doing it you could hit this month’s goals? Once everyone has developed their answers, it’s time to fill out your 4-1-1s.
Showing interest in their lives outside of work and encouraging them to participate in other things that they value can significantly increase employee loyalty and engagement around the work they do with you.
BREAKING DOWN THE 4-1-1
Showing interest in their lives outside of work and encouraging them to participate in other things that they value can significantly increase employee loyalty and engagement around the work they do with you.
The 4-1-1 is a one-page document that breaks your goals out into three sections—annual, monthly, and weekly goals.
Begin with your personal and business goals for the year. Make sure to list them in order of priority! This sets the tone for everything that follows, and is the most important part of this worksheet—it’s the North Star for everything else you do. Expect to refer back to these frequently to stay on track for success.
Once you’ve defined your personal and business goals for the year ahead,
you can move onto the goals for the current month. Ask yourself the question, “Based on my annual goals, what’s the ONE Thing I can do this month such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary”—and your answers will fill out the monthly goals section.
We refer to these items as your “Big Rocks,” because they are what will move you toward achieving your annual goals most effectively. Remember, what you include on your monthly 4-1-1 list is not your whole to-do list—it’s your MUST-DO list. Just like your annual goals, these should be listed in order of priority.
This is where the magic happens. If you have clarity on your #1 goal for the month, you can determine what will need to be done to achieve it. You will be empowered to start saying “No” to everything else that will distract you from your goals. And, when you do so, you can focus on the few things that will truly have a real impact on your long-term goals.
Now that you’ve got your Big Rocks sorted for the month ahead, it’s time to identify what you will do for the week ahead to stay on track to accomplish your goals for the month. Start every week by looking back at what you accomplished the week before and looking ahead at what you still need to do to reach your monthly goals. By doing so, you’ll be able to pinpoint the handful of tasks that would move you closer to reaching those goals.
Depending on your workflow, when you put together your weekly goals may differ. Some people may like ending a work week by taking some time on Friday afternoon to look ahead to the following week. Others may prefer winding down their Sunday evenings by
getting their head set for the week ahead. It’s just important to get the weekly portion of your 4-1-1 done before the new week begins so that you can take advantage of as much of the new week as possible.
RUNNING 4-1-1 MEETINGS
Once everyone is clear on their goals, you can schedule 4-1-1 meetings to review them. These are generally one-on-one meetings with your staff that take about 30 minutes per person. Try to do all your 4-1-1 meetings on Mondays, so that everyone starts the week with a clear understanding of how the past week unfolded, and what their priorities are for the week ahead.
These meetings are about helping your staff to perform at their best, and to show them that you support them and want them to succeed. So protect this time. Don’t let other meetings or work take precedence over a scheduled 4-1-1—your people are your most valuable asset, so treat them as such.
Putting the 4-1-1 into play with your team can seem daunting at first—it seems like a lot of information to get out of everyone, and like it could take a lot of time. Consider though how much time and energy these short meetings will save you by keeping everyone on the same page, doing their most important work and resolving any problems before they become a lost cause.
Consider how much time and energy these short meetings will save you by keeping everyone on the same page, doing their most important work and resolving any problems before they become a lost cause.
To make things even easier, there are six questions you can use with each team member to make sure that the 4-1-1 meetings are productive and become a place where you can have open conversations about where the business—and each person in it—is going.
Each week, meet with each person and have them hand you their updated 4-1-1. Then work through the following questions:
1. What were your goals last week?
2. How did you do? (cross off activities accomplished, move others forward)
3. How do you feel about that?
4. Based on how you did, what is your new goal and what do you need to do now?
5. Is there anything that might keep you from meeting these new goals?
6. If necessary, let’s identify training solutions that will support those job goals.
The 4-1-1 allows you to keep a pulse on how your team is doing, helping them to maintain clarity and focus about their work while giving them the support they need to grow in every part of their life.
4-1-1 meetings make you accessible and help to build trust and rapport. They give you the opportunity to give constructive feedback (good and bad), to learn about what motivates each team member, and to get to know them well enough that you can bring out the best in them every day. But it goes both ways—they also give your team insight about what you need and how they can do better in their work, provided that you are using the 4-1-1 system for your own work and are willing to be transparent about your goals as well.
Using this system with your team allows you to build accountability into the fabric of your business and to empower your team to achieve extraordinary things every day.