today I would like to talk to you about the law of count ability law number nine the law of count ability says teammates must be able to count on one another and I thought I would define count ability since it's not a word because when I was working on the laws I said there has to be a law of count ability but there's not a word called count ability but you you can't let things like that limit you because when I was working my team they said well that's not a word I said it has become one and the define count ability it's very simple accountability is the ability to count on someone when and where it counts now is that a good definition huh I mean you can now go around say you know I uncountable are you countable the law of caliber leti says that you have the ability to count on someone when and where it counts now we all know that there are some people you can count on and when it doesn't count and where it does count but I'm talking about when and where it counts you can count on that person well let me let me just talk about counting on somebody but in fact let's do a little audience participation on this for a moment okay I want you to give me the one word that comes to your mind when you think of somebody that you can count on I mean you think of somebody that really is countable okay you can count on when and where you need to count gimme gimme and there are probably like I have dozen one word yes what would give me word faithful I love that word that's a good word yes loyal good word yes character absolutely yes dependable yes both of you dependable dependable that's exactly the twins I'm sure okay yes okay flexible maybe yes consistency this is good yes trustworthy okay now you've got the idea of a person that is countable si si I defined a new word T and you already understand it now let me let me just let me turn this around for a moment give me one word to define a person that's not countable thank Awards it to a person you just don't count on them yes unreliable well that's very good yes hosta you've got a picture of a person in your mind right now you need to take that picture and go home and have target practice what's your day today yes clear up their selfish olessa oh you're done yes what is it dishonest you sure you can't count on to be honest good what made me want it yes sir Lacey you can have a picture of somebody near my head okay in fact it's you're giving me these one-word descriptions isn't it true you all have a picture of somebody when I asked you to give me the one word definition of a person that is countable everyone have you had the picture of somebody that you count on when I said give me a one-word picture of somebody that's not countable every one of you in your mind you had the picture of someone every one of us in this room knows what it's like to be let down how many of you have been let down by someone else sometime in your life now let me ask you another question how many of you have let someone down someplace in your life yeah let me define and let me help us understand countability by giving you three words and by the way the words you gave me were so good in fact the word I'm going to give you the first word that you're gonna fill in the blank was a word that was given to me a moment ago in the studio the word is character character plus competence plus consistency equals accountability look at those three words for a moment character we've got to talk about it for a second if you're going to be countable on the team if the teammates are going to count on you if the leader is going to count on you as a teammate you have to have character you have to have the right stuff on the inside when I wrote the 21 qualities of a leader I had a person say now why did you try to talk about the inside qualities of leader nice it's very simple if you wouldn't follow yourself why should anyone else what's on the inside determines what comes outside as a man or a woman thinks in her heart or his heart so is he so is she so character has to be in this accountability definition you've got to to be right on the inside to do right on the outside okay competence though that's got to be in that that's got to be in there let me put it this way if we're a team and we're getting ready to go into the big event and you have all the best character in the world I mean you're trustworthy you're honest you're kind I mean you've got all these great character traits let me say something if you're not competent I can't count on you and the reason I can't count on you is because you don't have the competence or the ability to perform on the level that the team requires so it's it's it's true that character is important but character alone doesn't make you countable but by the way confidence alone doesn't make you accountable either don't you know some people that are very confident but they don't have any character the good news is they're going to get there the bad news is you don't trust them good news is they're gonna take the train and arrive the bad news is you don't want to be on the train so they have character and they have confidence you gotta have both this is not an either/or thing character plus competence now now yet I know some people they've that good character they're competent but I still don't count on it and the reason I don't count on them is because they're not consistent the third word is consistency now when you could put those three words together they have character they have competence and they are consistent now you're talking about a person that has count ability earlier in one of the other training tapes on the teamwork laws I referred very quickly and briefly to the law of the inner circle that's a leadership law out of the 21 irrefutable laws of leadership and that law of the inner circle basically says those closest to you determine the level of your success those closest around you in other words your success or failure very seldom is dependent upon all the people out there it almost always is dependent upon the few people right here now the reason I'm going back and talking briefly about the law of the inner circle is that when I think of countability as far as a law of teamwork here's what I want you to know every inner circle member that I have it's only about a dozen but every inner circle member that I have of all the teamwork laws they have to be a ten on of all the teamwork laws they have to be a ten on let me tell you something right now this is the law I would not have an inner circle member that did not make a 10 on this law I have to count on my inner circle people if I question their character they can't be on the inner circle if they are incompetent they cannot be on the inner circle if they lack consistency they cannot be on the inner circle because too much is going on and we have too many things to accomplish for me to somehow have an inner circle member that breaks the law of count ability I want to encourage you timeout just for a moment I want to encourage you when you go back to your team when you go back to the inner circle not the whole team but the two or three people or the five or six people those that are on your inner circle those that are going to make you or break you those that are closest to you go back and ask this very simple question are they accountable do they have character are they competent and then do they do both with consistency if you can say yes to those three things you have a potential inner circle member if you say no to one of those three never let them on the inside I promise you if you have an inner circle member that is not countable it is only a matter of time until they'll hurt you coach bill McCartney who for many years was the football coach for the University of Colorado later years has become the leader of The Promise Keepers movement across America coach Mack is a very good friend of mine and he's a marvelous motivator and one of the things I like to do when I'm with coach a little bit as I like to talk to him about how he got the best out of his team because at the University of Colorado his coach there his team became number one in the nation and so they he had consistently winning good teams I saw a lot of times I'll say coach talk to me about about your team and he said John one of the things I did one year and that so I asked him how did you really get your players up for the big game you know when when cholera is playing Nebraska when their play at Oklahoma won the games how did you get your team up he said one year he said the week before we to play Nebraska which was our chief rifle and Nebraska usually dominated Colorado until coach Mac went there he said we were going to play at Nebraska and I think University of Colorado maybe had never won at Nebraska but it was a it was a game of which kind of like a david-and-goliath deal so I said I took a football and he said I gave it to every player on the team and he said I want you to take this football and I want you to dedicate this football and this game to someone you greatly loved it can be a brother back home maybe it's your mom maybe it's your high school coach but somebody you'd greatly loved and respect he said in fact I want you to write him a letter and he said what we all want you to do is I want you to write a letter and say I'm dedicating my play when we play Nebraska to you he said what I want you to do is hold the football this week he said after we play Nebraska we'll put the score on the football and that game they defeated Nebraska soundly and coach told me he said John I have no question the players played above their head because he said they became here's the word countable to somebody they respected and loved in fact he said many times before a big game he said I would go to a player and I would walk up to him and I say let me ask you a question what are you going to do in this game to help us win and you know that he said the players are tend to say well I'm going to work hard I'm gonna I'm gonna really play my best coach and he said it's not enough no no no I'm not asking you if you're gonna work hard he said I owe expect that from my holder he said what are you going to do in this game that'll help us win coach I'm going to cause somebody to fumble I'm gonna recover a fumble I'm gonna intercept a pass I'm going to run for a touchdown I'm going to open the hole for the back he I made every player tell me what specifically they were going to do in that game to bring a victory to us and he said when they spelled it out during the game he said many times he said I'd go up to a player and say do you remember what you said you're gonna bring Vicki helpless bring victory yes have you done it yet have you done it yet tremendous teaching on being accountable so here's the countability test because I love this statement the highest compliment a leader can give a team member is to count on him or her in other words the highest compliment that somebody could ever give you is the fact that they look at you with great integrity and say I'm counting on you I'm counting on you so three questions very simple here's my character solid I don't know you're gonna do this for yourself between a 1 and a 10 10 being you've got solid character 1 being you're in trouble am i confident in my responsibilities am I consistent in my character and competence yeah and you know what I would hope you may not be there now but I would hope to I think to be countable you ought to be somewhere at least in the number-7 range on all three of those and maybe you are today maybe you aren't today that isn't the issue it's it's you got to start somewhere and take the countability test let me let me illustrate this way let me I think I want to take this law and really illustrate the best way that possibly can because this law of count ability for the team and for the team players is absolutely huge so let me just be a little bit personal with you if I could be I have what I call a John Maxwell accountability count in other words I I keep track of my accountability now to keep track of your accountability the first thing you got to ask yourself Who am I countable to and in my situation is gonna be different than your situation although some of us some of the things will be very similar I I lead a wonderful organization called the enjoy group that basically is a is a umbrella for three different companies I'm countable to the people in my non-profit ministry equipped I'm countable to people and enjoy stewardship services I'm countable to people didn't enjoy because I'm the founder because I'm the leader I'm countable to a lot of people what I say what I do how I behave major countability but but I'm countable not only that but but because I I write books and I've written a few now and because I write books people when they buy a Maxwell book they have a certain expectation so every time I write a new book one of the things that weighs heavily upon me is this books got to be better than the last one I can't coast on my popularity I can't somehow just write off a book real fast that's not my best effort and hope that people will buy it because they bought other Maxwell books and I know this if they buy a book that's not what it should be or not what it could be they're gonna be greatly disappointed and I don't want to do that I'm countable to my readers and when I go speak you know what I'm countable to the people I speak to I was up at 4:30 this morning now I wrote the book the laws of teamwork what was I doing this morning at 4:30 sitting in my desk reviewing the laws of teamwork because the author is going to speak and he better know his subject Sam countable to you your folks came today many of you drove came from out of state flew in many of you drove a long distance you've paid a price to come here can I tell you something I can't take that lightly you didn't come here to hear somebody get up there and just talk and waste your time you came to hear somebody that's going to add value your life so when I come out here today it's more than cameras and and lights and and training videos this is the real deal I'm callable to you can I tell you something a leader is in trouble when they start to slide their accountability I'm not only accountable to you there's an audience or places where I go for companies and corporations they pay pretty good dollars to fly me in to help their teams get better and add value to them and I'm here to tell you they don't pay me those dollars to get in there and just tell a funny story and motivate them I'm more than a motivator motivational speaker I'm a motivational teacher my goal is not just to make you feel good I want you to feel good but I want you to feel good to learn something that's better than feeling bad and learning nothing I'm countable when this day is over you're gonna say either this was a good day or this wasn't a good day he either added value to me and took me to another level or I should have done something else I'm countable and when I get home I am a wife Margaret been married to her now you're waiting aren't you 32 years plus she's only 35 [Laughter] she's my best friend I'm Cal to her and to my two married children and my two in-laws and to my two grandchildren uh-huh I got two granddaughters Madeline and Hannah both under a year both children first only girls to be born without sin it's an incredible story I'm countable and in fact let me help you get this accountability thing really straightened out in your life I'm going to define success for you I think success can be easily defined this way those closest to me love and respect me the most now now let me let me explain that to you so just make sure you get it this is simple this afternoon late this afternoon I'll go home Margaret's my best friend can I tell you something wrong with me as a leader or as a team player when people who don't know me well love and respect me more than those who know me well so I want you to like me you should if you're discerning and have good taste this I like you I want you like me but but I just want everybody to understand in the studio and everybody watching the video on this incredible all teamwork accountability what I want you to know is although I want you to like me it's not near as important for you to like me and respect me as my wife Margaret and my kids hello you see if those who know me the least like me the best there's probably something wrong with my character and and I just I'll just close the law off because I I don't want to just get my personal faith in here but I believe there's a day when I'm also going to be countable - god I'm gonna have to answer the big question what have I done with my life have I added value to people have I climbed the ladder of success only to find out when I got to the top it was leaning against the wrong building here's what I know when I go in with my teammates into the big event I want those on my left and I want those on my right to be countable but the person I want to be countable the most is me because most of the victories that I have to struggle with are not with others they're with me and if I can lead myself then perhaps I'll be privileged to lead others