Accountability is the glue that holds coordinated efforts together. 

When multiple teams and individuals are working toward a shared strategic goal, accountability is a magical force that keeps everything aligned and moving forward. Without it, even our best plans can unravel into missed deadlines, finger-pointing, and confusion about who is responsible for what. 

Accountability is often thought of as something that flows from the top down—a manager setting goals, checking progress, and ensuring results. But in reality, the most effective accountability happens between peers. When teams hold each other accountable, work moves faster, problems are solved more collaboratively, and people are more motivated to deliver.

Accountability, in this sense, isn’t about oversight—it’s about commitment. It’s what ensures that when one person completes their piece of the puzzle, the next person is ready to pick it up and keep going.

We've all heard experts say, "Get the right people in the room" when it comes to building a strategy. But what does that even mean? Vague advice like this isn’t helpful unless we dig deeper. Who are these people, why do they matter, and how do we leverage their insights effectively? Without clarity on this, we risk missing essential voices or creating a strategy that lacks focus.

So, what does it mean to get the right people in the room? Here are three key objectives:

When it comes to motivating teams to execute a strategy, financial incentives like bonuses, commissions, and stock options often take center stage. While these rewards are effective, they don’t tell the full story. One of the most powerful, yet often overlooked, motivators in the workplace is social incentives. Recognition, accountability, and the need to belong frequently prove just as effective—if not more—than financial rewards in driving engagement and performance.

Monetary rewards alone rarely keep people motivated day in and day out. What truly drives many of us is a sense of purpose, recognition from our peers, and a personal connection to the work we do. Almost all of us want to feel like we’re part of something bigger and that our contributions matter. In fact, neuroscience shows that when we receive recognition, the brain’s reward centers light up in much the same way as when we receive financial compensation. This means social incentives are wired into us, deeply influencing our behavior at work.

One of the most critical jobs of a people leader is building a high-performing team.

I like to think of it like a General Manager of a sports team who is assembling a group of players who can compete for the championship. It’s important think about how the group as a whole will function together versus focusing on each role in a vacuum where you could end up with a team of superstars (or “A players”) who are individually great but collectively disappointing.

I love this quote from basketball legend Sue Bird:

"I've been on extremely talented teams that just don't click, and I've also been on teams with a little bit less talent, but they clicked, and because they clicked, they did better than other talented teams I've been on."

When hiring to build a winning team, I like to focus on three Cs: Character, Critical thinking, and Chemistry.

Experience is important, but I find it’s far less predictable than those three Cs. More on that in a bit.

But first, let’s explore the Cs.

In my experience, the most important factor for success in business is the ability to interact well with other people. Leadership skills, financial acumen, and technical expertise all matter a lot, but they don’t amount to a hill of beans without solid people skills.

The reality is none of us can be successful completely on our own. We need the help of other people — peers, staff, managers, vendors, or business partners — to successfully accomplish our tasks and goals.

Human relationships are more complicated than Wall Street financial schemes, but we often take interpersonal skills for granted. We rarely study them to the degree we study financial or technical skills. After all, we’ve been talking to people all our lives. We’re experienced. But I’ll argue there are subtleties that make all the difference, and they’re worth studying.