I am frequently asked what the single most important thing there is to do to improve overall business performance. We know from years of direct experience there are three things that separate an extraordinary company from all the rest in their industry. Highly successful enterprises always utilize a system of management. The second is to have managers who are both highly skilled and top performers. Finally, all the employees and the members of management think positively. They think of themselves as winning in all situations.

Of course, that's looking at things from a very high level. As you look deeper and deeper into these businesses the lists of what they're doing become longer and longer. We've learned that everything does not have equal weight. All things don't contribute to a businesses' success equally. Accountability is probably the most important of everything you might think about doing. Particularly when the company has a culture of accountability we find a very high likelihood the company will be in the top 10 to 20% of their industry.

There is a myriad of things to do that result in an improvement in topline and bottom-line business results. Here is a short list of some of the more important ingredients. The owner of the business needs to have established a clear and well communicated vision for the future. A strategy should be driving the business and overall direction. Management needs to establish a tactical plan at least once a year. You'll find a short list of core values and a clear mission statement in every top company. All resources, including facilities, infrastructure, procedures, financial, and, etc. must be catalogued and lined up.

Employees are the most important assets. A human resources management plan needs to be clear and in place. Position descriptions or job descriptions are important for every person. All the employees need to be evaluated on a periodic basis. Actual performance and compensation are aligned in a high-performing companies. Training programs, mentoring programs, coaching programs are typically established in the high performing businesses.

Fundamentally, you need high-performing people at all levels. The jobs that need to get done are completed frequently and well.

There are many things companies do that are on the margin relative to their effectiveness. Many companies spend a lot of time on product improvement, marketing and branding. It's not that you shouldn't do those things. In fact, often they should be done. Point is you need to think about how good they really are and when they should be executed. The last paragraph listed some items which are much more valuable to do first.

Bottom line is the installation of a culture of accountability is the most important thing you can do. You can count on me, represents a culture of accountability. Everyone is standing by their commitments. The flipside is that everyone expects their counterpart to have kept their word. When this culture is part of day-to-day behavior that's when you'll find an outstanding levels of performance. The value of accountability as such that you can actually forget about many of the other items in this article and still have great results.

In conclusion, there is a long list of things that you can do to help your business results. However, one thing will give you the best overall return. And it's the one thing you should do first. Accountability is it. Everything we've talked about here is needed. However accountability is so important that companies that do everything except it are not likely to be high performers. Those that just have accountability do well.

So, fundamentally you should take the first step which is to install a culture of accountability. This means everyone will set goals; do their best to finish the goals on time; and, their teammates will hold them accountable.