The Accountability Scorecard Every Founder Needs

Founders love to talk about accountability because it makes them look like responsible leaders. But unless you can specifically demonstrate how your business is becoming more accountable, it’s just a buzzword.

What’s more, bad leaders often cite accountability concerns when they make decisions that unnecessarily erode the freedom or privacy of their employees. Many a toxic workplace culture has been created by managers who decided they needed to subject their teams to surveillance because they didn’t trust them to be productive. The result is nearly always that people become more stressed and less trusting at work. Anyone who thinks that’s good for productivity just isn’t playing with a full deck.

So how can you actually hold your business accountable, and how do you verify that your approach is working? The same way you would verify the success of any other project: by selecting KPIs and tracking them at regular intervals.

I’m here to share the scorecard I created to measure accountability at my company, Roof Maxx. We sell a roof maintenance solution to extend asphalt shingle life, so the business is structured as a dealer network — but don’t worry, this can also work for companies that hire salaried employees or contractors.

Each question you can honestly answer “yes” to is worth a point. Tally them up at the end and see how accountable your business really is.

Staying accountable to customers

Your customers are the ones who keep you in business, so it’s absolutely vital that you remain accountable to them. Ask yourself each of the following questions:

• Is every promise that you make to your customers enforceable, like a warranty or guarantee?
• Do you consistently track the average time it takes to respond to a customer inquiry or concern?
• When a customer has a problem covered by a promise you’ve made, do you have a clearly defined process for resolving it?
• Do you ever turn down a potential sale because you know your solution isn’t right for the prospect?

Roof Maxx treatments come with a warranty guaranteeing that treated asphalt shingles will remain flexible for five years from the service date. If a customer ever reports that their treated shingles are losing flexibility during the warranty period, our dealers are trained to respond as quickly as possible and document the response — including how long it took — in their CRM. Then they assess the area and re-treat any shingles that need it.

Our assessment process also ensures that dealers only ever recommend Roof Maxx to homeowners whose roofs are strong candidates for treatment. If they genuinely don’t think Roof Maxx will help, they suggest alternatives instead so that we can remain accountable to everyone we serve.

Staying accountable to your talent

Nobody can run a business alone. Whether your company relies on partners, employees or contractors to carry out the bulk of its operations, you need to make sure you’re accountable to these people as well.

• Do you clearly define what each person in your organization is responsible for, and what you’re responsible for providing in return?
• Do you have a system in place to provide training or support that helps your people succeed?
• When someone underperforms, do you review your system to make sure they had every opportunity to meet expectations before holding them responsible?

These questions are precisely why Roof Maxx has detailed agreements with each dealer in our network, which clearly stipulate the minimums they need to meet in order to continue selling our product. We determine these with each new dealer on an individual basis to ensure that the standards we hold them to are realistic and achievable in the context of their career goals.

We also developed our own dealer management software called Roof Maxx Connect to provide ongoing education and free resources to everyone who sells our product. This helps us standardize the training dealers receive across all 50 states where they operate, and also makes it easier for us to identify where further support is needed.

Staying accountable to the public

Finally, it’s important to hold your business accountable to the world at large — including people who aren’t customers, and even your competition. Ask the following:

• Is every claim you make in your marketing accurate? This one’s important for compliance as well as overall brand perception.
• When you discover misinformation about your brand, do you correct the record?
• Do you have a specific person at your company own the process of reviewing everything above on a regular basis? You probably don’t right now, but you should after reading this.

What your score means:

• 1-3: You’re using accountability as a buzzword. The values you’ve described aren’t meaningfully showing up in your business practices — at least, not yet.
• 2-6: You may be accountable to some parties, but there are gaps. In most cases, this looks like staying accountable to customers while letting things slide with your partners or the public. Make sure you’re extending your sense of duty to all of these groups.
• 7-9: You have a solid system — now keep improving it! You can demonstrate a consistent commitment to keeping your promises across most or all of your internal and external relationships. Just remember: Accountability is ongoing work.
• A perfect 10: Are you sure? Can you honestly say you have nowhere to improve here? This could be a red flag that you’re not being totally honest with yourself, so your work is cut out for you in that case. You can’t be accountable to others unless you’re accountable to yourself.

Fortunately, the questions here are also your road map for making changes. Make any question you answered “no” to above your priority when moving forward, and you’ll find it easy to hold your head up high in any vital relationship for your organization.

Founders love to talk about accountability because it makes them look like responsible leaders. But unless you can specifically demonstrate how your business is becoming more accountable, it’s just a buzzword.

What’s more, bad leaders often cite accountability concerns when they make decisions that unnecessarily erode the freedom or privacy of their employees. Many a toxic workplace culture has been created by managers who decided they needed to subject their teams to surveillance because they didn’t trust them to be productive. The result is nearly always that people become more stressed and less trusting at work. Anyone who thinks that’s good for productivity just isn’t playing with a full deck.

So how can you actually hold your business accountable, and how do you verify that your approach is working? The same way you would verify the success of any other project: by selecting KPIs and tracking them at regular intervals.