Mastering Commitment & Accountability with Sam Silverstein – ep 69

Mostafa Hosseini    0:03 

Hello, and welcome to daily confidence for entrepreneurs. My name is Mostafa Hosseini  . And today we have an amazing topic we were talking about the power of keeping commitments, no matter what we’re going to redefine accountability with my guest, Sam Silverstein, which is going to join us in a minute or two, we’re going to talk about creating a culture that are lost and it’s sustainable, and so that you can impact other people’s lives and, you know, make a bigger dent, and the planet now during the show a daily conference for entrepreneurs who share tips, strategies, and actionable advice that you can use in boosting your confidence in different areas of business on a daily basis.

And, as usual, please make sure that you like the show, subscribe in whichever channel you’re watching, ask a question during the show from me or Sam, who is going to be joining me here in a minute. tag a friend from who could benefit from the conversation so we can make a bigger impact in the world. Now, let me welcome my guest. Welcome, Sam. How are you today?

Sam Silverstein  1:09 

I am great. It’s great to be here live, listening to the introduction.

Mostafa Hosseini    1:15 

So I’ve been looking forward to our conversation. So we’re gonna, we’re gonna have a really good time, and I looking forward to it. So today we’re going to talk about the power of keeping commitment, no matter what, let me do the proper introduction here for Sam and then we’re going to dive into a very interesting conversation.

So speaker, author, and an entrepreneur, Sam Silverstein is the founder of the accountability Institute and a certified accountability advisor. His mission is to build a more accountable world. And Sam is the author of 11 books, including I am accountable, non negotiable, no more excuses, making accountable decisions, and no matter what. He is a past president of the National Speakers Association, and has been inducted into the speaker’s Hall of Fame. Welcome, Sam.

Sam Silverstein  2:08 

Thank you, I appreciate that. Love it and gang.

Mostafa Hosseini    2:11 

stick around till the end, we’re going to Sam is going to share a very amazing gift. And we’ll talk about it later. So how’s your day going? Sam?

Sam Silverstein  2:21 

It’s been fantastic clients around the world. You never know what part of the world you get to visit at anytime, right?

Mostafa Hosseini    2:27 

Absolutely. And COVID has pushed us to do more and more of that. Oh, yeah. Well, we which is wonderful.

Sam Silverstein  2:33 

Yeah, you know, it’s a good thing. And that’s why we built out our studio here so we can reach people no matter where they are.

Mostafa Hosseini    2:40 

And it’s like, honestly, I think if COVID didn’t happen, we probably wouldn’t be here today. I bet you’re right. No. Good. So let’s start by your story. What is your story?

Sam Silverstein  2:53 

My story. You know, I grew up in an average family went to college did all the right stuff. I was in business with my parents, and I was in business with my in laws. So I know all about family businesses. And, you know, at one point in time, someone, I noticed that people were coming to me and thanking me for the advice that I gave them.

And I thought, you know, if I had such a positive impact on people without trying what would happen if I tried. And so I had met a, really one of the top sales trainers in the world at that point in time. And he told me that his career took off when he wrote his first book. So I said, Okay, that’s what I’ll do. I’ll write a book.

So I wrote a book and started speaking, and 28 years later, you know, I’ve had the opportunity to work with government agencies and companies around the world, and help them understand truly what accountability is, and what it can be for them, not just individually, but organizationally and in their communities.

Mostafa Hosseini    3:52 

Love it. And so what do you do these days? And who do you serve?

Sam Silverstein  3:57 

Well, you know, we have, I am an author, you already mentioned that I speak on platforms. The speaking today, a lot of it is virtual, because of because of COVID and everything else, but then I work with corporate leaders and government leaders in different agencies. So it’s not unusual for me to be talking with a client in California one afternoon, and then the next morning dealing with a client in Riyadh, in Saudi Arabia, and then that, that evening, I could be talking to somebody in the Philippines.

 I mean, it’s, this is what I do. So I help leaders build organizations, and build a sustainable, powerful organizational culture that inspires accountability. We figured out how to do this. We’ve case studied so many organizations, we know what it takes.

Mostafa Hosseini    4:47 

So what’s the whole story behind you? Focusing on accountability and becoming a specialist in that?

Sam Silverstein  4:56 

Well, I was speaking for several years and quite frankly, my friends didn’t didn’t know what I was speaking on, they couldn’t recommend me. And because of my background I, I had a program in personal development, I have program on creative marketing at a program on sales, I had a program on building a dynamic relationships.

I had a program on, I did some strategic planning, it was all over the place. And so no one knew what I was doing. And a good friend of mine, Joe Callaway, I saw him speak one time in a profound moment, he basically said, Sam, pick a lane.

And so I sat back, and I said, So what’s the common element? What’s the foundation? What is it that drives everything for us individually and in an organization because we see, you know, you see organizations all the time, they need help with customer service, they need help with team building or communication, those aren’t really the problems, what I discovered is the single underlying issue is one that connects back to accountability.

 And that’s when I put my blinders on. And that’s when everything i right now focuses in on accountability.

Mostafa Hosseini    6:02 

Love it. So give us your give us your definition of accountability, what is actually accountability,

Sam Silverstein  6:08 

it’s real simple accountability is keeping your commitments to people. That’s it. And so, if people are involved, obviously, relationships are involved. The organizations, we work with that master relationships, always master accountability. There are organizations that that we get involved with, where there’s a lot of things going on inside the organization that aren’t necessarily positive from a relationship standpoint, they suffer from accountability. So relationships have to be in place. The second thing is if accountability is keeping your commitments to people, we need to know what a commitment is.

So your next question is probably going to be what’s our goal? Yeah, well, a commitment is no matter what. And so it’s black and white. It’s no matter what. Now here’s what we’ve discovered. There’s two areas in commitments, there’s tactical commitments, and there’s relational commitments. And so the tactical commitments, I’ll be here at 230, I’ll have the report done by tomorrow, we’ll have the proposal by Monday afternoon.

These are tactical commitments, doggone it, if you’re not doing that stuff, you don’t deserve to have a job. But doing that stuff goes to productivity, productivity is good, but productivity does not equate accountability. So it’s the relational commitments that when you keep them build accountability, and as accountability goes up, productivity does also go up. So those relational commitments are things like a commitment to the truth, a commitment to live the values, the commitment to stand by you, when all hell breaks loose, a commitment to it’s all of us.

If if you fail, I fail. If you succeed, I succeed, some leaders look at it the other way around, they say, Well, if I succeed, you’re going to succeed, they’ve got it backwards. And so it’s these relational commitments that when leaders make and keep them, not necessarily spoken, these are unspoken. That’s what’s going to build accountability.

Mostafa Hosseini    8:06 

Love it. So why is it that people struggle with that accountability piece, you know,

Sam Silverstein  8:11 

they struggle with accountability, because they don’t understand it, they think it’s a way of doing, they think accountability is doing stuff. Those are the tactical commitments, those that’s responsible responsibility, you’re responsible for things, but you’re accountable to people.

 And until leaders can delineate between responsibilities, and accountability, then they’re gonna get it all messed up, and they say stupid stuff, like I’m gonna hold you accountable. Well, who wants to be held accountable, you know, if if it’s my job to do something, I’m not getting the job done. If I’ve been trained, if I have the resources, I have the responsibility, I have the authority, and I’m not getting the job done, then you should find out what’s going on.

And if I’m still not getting the job done, you should fire my butt and hire somebody else. If you are being accountable to me through those relational commitments, I’m going to be inspired to want to be accountable to you.

Mostafa Hosseini    9:06 

Okay, all right, that makes sense. So for the people that have a hard time keeping their words and keeping their commitments, can you give us some of the foundational Whys as to why that happens? And, you know, like, I’ve had people where they, you know, they’re say, they said, Let’s do this, or like, Alright, let’s go for a hike tomorrow, and they just don’t show up.

Let’s say, like you said, we’re going to deliver this by 5pm. Tomorrow, and next week. They don’t, what is the what is the reasons behind it?

Sam Silverstein  9:42 

They don’t, they don’t respect you as a person. They don’t value your time. And they value themselves over you and they don’t understand it. Most of the time. I would say it’s not malicious, but they just don’t get it. Look, I was meeting a friend for lunch we’d meet together, you know, every few weeks, we’d meet and have lunch, lunch, we’d set up 12 o’clock. I’d rarely show up at about 1205, he was always waiting for me.

He said, Sam, if you keep showing up at 1205, you’re gonna show up and have lunch alone, because I’m not going to wait. And I realized, you know what, I wasn’t valuing his time. If I say I’m going to be there at 12 o’clock, first of all, what I discovered was you have when it comes to time, you’re either early or you’re late, you’re never on time, because 12 o’clock is 12 o’clock, not 1201. Not only that, it’s not 12. And one second, because 12 and one second is after 12 o’clock.

So you either get there before 12 o’clock, or you get there late. And I realize, you know what, his time is important to him, he has things that he’s saying no to to be there for me, I need to have the same respect for him. And it changed my whole view on how to approach things like that. And so if people are not showing up, if they look, things happen, okay, there are emergencies, there’s traffic, you get a flat tire, I get all that things are going to happen.

But if someone is regularly not keeping those tactical commitments, and that’s what you’re talking about tactical commitments, if they’re not keeping those, then eliminate those people from your life. Why do you want it? Why do you waste time on that I’m, there’s another great people that’ll keep those. Remember, accountability is not a way of doing accountability is a way of thinking. And it’s how we think about people

Mostafa Hosseini    11:31 

love it, love, especially when it comes to employment. What advice do you have for people that they have employees, and employees are not keeping their commitments?

Sam Silverstein  11:43 

Well, okay, so we’re talking about the tactical commitments at this point. So

Mostafa Hosseini    11:48 

okay, let’s before we do that, can you clarify between two tactical commitments? And I know you touched on this, the tactical and what

Sam Silverstein  11:54 

was the other one? Relational commitments?

Mostafa Hosseini    11:57 

What is okay, so this isn’t tactical commands when you say, so you’re gonna be there at noon? What is tactical commitment,

Sam Silverstein  12:02 

right? That’s all about responsibility. Okay, it’s all about responsibility. It’s not accountability. Accountability is between human beings. It’s me saying, Mustafa, you know, what, you have a lot of potential. And what I want to do is I want to send you to this course, and and I want to get you trained up, and then I want to move you over into this division in the organization, because I think you’ll thrive there.

And you’re going to grow like crazy. Now, when I’m doing that, as a leader, that’s me being accountable to and for you. And so what’s I’m looking out for you now, simple question. Do you want to let me down? No, no, no. So what happens? So you bust your butt? To make it work, you bust your butt to learn what you need to learn? Yes, oh, my gosh, Sam believes in me. He’s, he’s put, he’s investing in me, I can’t let him down.

Now what happens when you have an organization filled with people that don’t want to let someone down? They don’t. And that’s why these relational commitments that build accountability, also build productivity, but when we’re just focused on getting crap done, and the stuff needs to get done, but if that’s what we’re focused on, and we’re not focused on people, then we get stuff done, but we lose good people.

And these people do not work at their highest potential. So we need to make sure that we’re focused on people and let them focus on the stuff. My you know, when you hire me, you’re gonna give me a job description. That’s a list of responsibilities, not a list of accountabilities, it’s things. And again, if you’ve trained me if I have the resources, the responsibility, the authority to do it, and I’m not doing it, why wouldn’t you fire me? I mean, give me an example. At a client, I walked into 20, the leadership team of 24 people that 2400 employees, major organizations, I mentioned the name you know who it was. Now, not everybody I work with is that large.

I work with companies that have 2530 people, same situation. I go into the room, and we’re talking, we’re doing a development, and someone starts laughing. I said, What’s so funny? Oh, we were talking about so and so Joe. What’s so funny about Joe? Well, Joe never does his work. I said, really? He said, Yeah, I said, So what do you do? Well, we go and we it’s in his inbox, we take it out of the inbox, and we just do it ourselves. I said, Oh, great. Do you also take his paycheck? And they laugh? No, we don’t get his paycheck as Why do you let Joe stay? Why are you paying someone that’s not doing their work? That makes no sense. So now this is going to come back to a relational value, which is a commitment to a relational commitment, which is a commitment to live the values.

 Isn’t there a value in the organization that connects to what, what excellence is here? Because there needs to be and if there is, and I’m not live Adding that value or in this case, Joe’s not leaving that value, why are you letting him stay? Because if you let him stay, then what you’re saying is that value doesn’t really count.

Mostafa Hosseini    15:08 

Right? Right. Right. If they don’t get it share that that value, Mike, we have to get rid of them real quick.

Sam Silverstein  15:16 

If it’s like, but how many companies don’t do that, you know, they let people stay. They go, Oh, unemployment is low, I can’t find good people. Well, then take your values off your website, because they’re just lies if you’re not living them their lies. And if you’re not finding good people, I’ll tell you. So. I hear this all the time. I asked one of my Go ahead.

Mostafa Hosseini    15:37 

No, I’m sorry to cut you off. But it’s like, for me, it’s like it’s like caring about Apple, and it’s gonna it’s gonna rot the whole the whole. Absolutely, everybody, right?

Sam Silverstein  15:47 

So what happens when you fire somebody? Now? You fired someone before?

Mostafa Hosseini    15:52 

Oh, yeah. Okay. It opens up resources, actually.

Sam Silverstein  15:57 

Okay. So within 24 to 48 hours after you fire somebody, one or more people come up to you. And they say, Mustapha, what took you so long? Exactly. Exactly. You see, when you let that person go, you’re protecting the culture for everyone else, you’re doing them a favor, they want you to let that person go. They knew about Joe, probably before you knew about Joe. And when you let that person stay, they know you are not committed to those values. Not only that, they know you’re not committed to them, because you’re willing to let that bad apple stay in the barrel.

Mostafa Hosseini    16:33 

Exam. Yeah. And it just the whole, the whole barrel goes rotten. And then next thing you know, it’s going to be game over. You know exactly, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. What was the saying saying hire slow fire fast? I don’t know who said

Sam Silverstein  16:48 

that? Yes, yes. I mean, I hear that all the time, hire slow hire to the values have crystal clarity on what your values are, you better know what your values are. And those values better be great. They have to connect the four areas to be a great set of values higher to the values and then fire from them. If someone’s not living the values, let them go. It’s real simple. It doesn’t have to be complex, but then everyone in the organization knows, wow, they let Sam go, because he’s not living the values. I better live the values. It’s kind of basic.

Mostafa Hosseini    17:20 

Okay, all right. So speaking of values, what are some of the good ways to build an organizational culture? That values accountability?

Sam Silverstein  17:32 

Okay, great question. So here’s what happens. That culture, that workplace culture in an organization, when accountability is the byproduct of that, when you have a great culture, accountability is what flows out of it. And here’s what else we’ve discovered. When you create that amazing culture, you also have a you have better leadership, you have increased communication, you have better teamwork, it’s a more safe environment, not just physically safe, emotionally safe, you have more creativity, innovation, you have greater productivity, you have greater engagement, and you’re gonna have greater, you’re gonna have much greater profits on the bottom line, that kind of culture can be had.

Now, there’s two types of culture, every organization has a culture. One type of culture is a culture by default, one’s a culture by design. So what you’re talking about as a culture, by design, a culture by default, literally anything goes they’re letting the bad apple stay, if you let the bad apple stay, it says, doesn’t matter what the values are. If you produce enough, we’ll let you stay. If we don’t want to have to hire someone, we’ll let you stay if I’m lazy, you get to stay.

But a culture by design is predicated on on five things, Mustafa, it’s, it’s first of all, you define the culture and you define it through the values very specifically, those values need to talk about. There’s foundational values that talk to what the character the organization is, there’s relational values that talk about how we get along here in the organization, as well as how we get along externally in the organization.

There’s professional values, which we talked about, you know, what is excellence here? And then there’s community values, how do we connect to and serve the community in which we do business? Those become the house rules, those become the how those define the culture, then then the steps, aren’t you, you model that culture as a leader, you live those values, you model the culture, you teach it, you teach it to absolutely everyone in the organization, I don’t care if they’re pushing them up, or they’re an executive VP, everyone has a responsibility to the culture, you protect the culture, and you protect the culture by proactively building relationships, but on a reactive sense, as we said, you you don’t allow people to stay that aren’t living the culture. If I’m not living the culture, don’t let me stay otherwise it’s not our culture.

And then the fifth step is you celebrate you regularly celebrate small groups, large groups, company wide, department wide, you can pat me on the back saying you’re doing an amazing job. You can Celebrating that culture, and then it’s just wash, rinse and repeat, you just keep it up.

Mostafa Hosseini    20:06 

Hmm, what’s the best way to teach sham culture and the values to, to employees and team members?

Sam Silverstein  20:16 

So, you know, we do that all the time? And that’s really a great question. First of all, you have to have clarity on what those values are, you have to have clarity on what those values, okay? And there’s specific systems, you know, we don’t need to get into that now how to identify and articulate and not just a word, but actually what it means. Because if you don’t have a narrative to the value, then you can’t teach it.

So if you say, well, let’s say one of the values is respect, because that’s one of the most popular values we say, well, respect to you. And respect to me may mean two different things. If you write down definition, and I write down definition, they might be similar, but they won’t be identical. So you there needs to be clarity and what those values are. So for example, an organization that that we case study to a bank in Texas, that’s absolutely amazing. Give you an example of one of their values. Here, and here. They have integrity.

Here’s the value integrity character, our reputation is everything. Do what’s right, always every time anytime, no matter what it costs, no matter who it offends, no matter the perceived consequence, encourage it, rewarded revere it make it the manner that we are known for it is expected. Now, that’s what that means to them now. Now you can teach that because you understand that I understand it, we know it the same way that you can teach.

So how do you teach that every time you make a decision, you connect it to the values, and then the people that you lead, you say, This is why we made this decision, we made this decision because it connects to this value or connects to that value.

 Or I just want to let you know, before we start the meeting today, I gotta tell you about Sally, because last week, Sally was working with a client and this is what happened and you tell the success story of Sally, and you show how she is stepping out the value that that you have that connects to the customer experience or whatever that value is. And so you start once a leader starts talking about values, you can never stop because as soon as you stop, people think it’s not important to you, this your culture, your values has to be like, some people don’t like this word, but it’s a cult. Everyone is all in or they’re not in Yes, it and that’s okay.

If you’re not going to live the values, that’s fine, we will allow you to go someplace else. But the values must always be a part of the conversation at every meeting you have whether it’s two people, five people, 10 people, board meetings, you always have something that connects to the values because this is critical to define what that workplace culture is, as soon as you stop talking about it, the culture dress,

Mostafa Hosseini    23:07 

love it. Love it. So what I heard was, connect what’s happening to the values the decisions, here’s a decision that we wait, and here’s why and which value it connects to. Right, exactly. share examples of people that are actually living and exercising the values on a, I would say regular basis, right? And model it as a leader, exactly. Stick to your values, and then don’t worry about who is in and who is out. Because in my experience, when you share when you when you live your values, if you attract the they’re the people with the same values automatically. And then you don’t have to worry about the thing.

Sam Silverstein  23:49 

If that’s you have it, that’s exactly what happened. So to the to the company that says Well, I can’t find enough good people. And you know, I’m in, I’m in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and I’m talking to a construction company up there and he says he I just can’t someone’s not living the values, but I can’t afford to let them go.

And then I’m talking to a construction company in in Lubbock, Texas. And I go, what do you tell the guy that that says, you know, I can’t afford to let someone go. I can’t find good people and his response. Now this a guy that in an area unemployment is zero, always has 40 to 100 people apply for a job opening and you think about that is simple response without even thinking was, Well, maybe he hasn’t built an organization good enough to attract those people. And so it’s hard, cold truth. It’s hard, cold truth. People. Look, if I asked you list two or three companies you think would be great places to work. What would you come up with?

Mostafa Hosseini    24:51 

What would I come up with? Yeah. To three companies. That would be a great place to work. Huh?

Sam Silverstein  24:59 

Forget about you know your career or you know what you’re experienced in? Just, who would be where do you think it’d be a great place to work?

Mostafa Hosseini    25:07 

We got a company out here in Calgary or Canada called mech mountain Equipment Co Op, they sail outdoor gear

Sam Silverstein  25:15 

equivalent company in the US called Rei. Could be, yeah, I’m saying they give amazing customer service, you can return anything. They love their customers. They love their their people. Yeah. Okay, so here’s the perfect example. People want to work there. People want to go there to shop. People want to work there. Guess what else, I bet when you’re inside, you notice people communicate with each other differently.

They actually act like they like each other, and they’re getting along with each other. All of this does not happen by chance. This is, you know, our certified, or certified accountability advisors. When they go into the field, they teach leaders how to do just that step it out. If this is not rolling the dice, this is not luck. This is by design. It can be rubber stamp repeated time after time after

Mostafa Hosseini    26:10 

Yeah, yeah. I mean, we exercise this scaling up method, the Rockefeller habits by Vern Harnish. And we have a huge emphasis on values. And as soon as when I when I first came across the book, and we talked about I read it, it was like, Well, this is this isn’t a massive piece of luck. A lot of people don’t share their values.

And then a lot of companies don’t even have designed values, which makes it hard for them. Like you said, they it makes it hard for them to attract talent makes it hard for them to grab customers. So what is what would be wouldn’t be a good way to actually fine. Define and or designed values for a company?

Sam Silverstein  26:55 

Well, it’s interesting, you know, when I order a sport coat or a suit, I’ve got a tailor that I use. And the first time I went to him, he says, So what do you want monogrammed on the inside of the jacket? He says just Sam or Samuel Silverstein? I said, Sam Silverstein is fine. And I said but on the other side, I need you to put AI dot r dot s dot. And he says IRS you want that on the other side? This is yeah, this is not I don’t I don’t work for the government agency that collects taxes. I’m that’s not that’s not it, I said stands for integrity, respect and significance. Those are my values, I want them sewn in my jacket. I want them with me everywhere.

I want them omnipresent. We’ve developed of I’d like to think that it’s masterful process of leading cross sectional groups of organizations to discover their values. First of all, we’ve identified, it’s not enough to have great values, you need a great set of values. Now there’s a difference. You know, integrity by itself is a great value. But unless it’s part of a great set, it’s kind of like having a car with three unbelievable tires. And on the other, no tire at all. What good does that do you? So you need a great set of values. And then you need a cross section of people to discover them. We once had a leader say, well, I’ll get the executive team with you. And we’ll work through this. This is No, I said, let’s take a cross section of the entire organization.

He says, Well, what if they don’t, what or they don’t come up with the right thing. I said, Well, you think you you have the the exclusive on on, on what’s right, just trust the system. So you take the cross section, and we have a process of of questions and ways of getting people to think creatively. And then ultimately, what we’re doing is filling, filling four buckets, we want to create values that connect to and fill those four buckets, the foundational values, relational values, professional values, and community values.

And we lead an organization through that, and we teach our advisors how to do it. And it’s, it’s so powerful, because literally, we start at nine o’clock in the morning, and by about 330 In the afternoon, we have a rough draft of a set of values with a narrative, like I shared with you with with phraseology of exactly what it means. So now people know how to step it out and how to live it. And and so it it’s a commitment. It’s a commitment from leadership to say, I’m gonna take a day and we’re going to create this and then we’re going to refine it and we’re going to live it

Mostafa Hosseini    29:26 

what advice for do you have for people that think they don’t want to allocate a day or two or three to sit down figure these things out and plan and you know, design their business?

Sam Silverstein  29:40 

Have a nice life? Let me know how. See, I mean, here’s the thing. You know, in our countries, making money is not that difficult. And so companies become success. Still unprofitable, and think they’re doing great. And they think they’re operating really well. You know, I had a client once and I showed him a chart that substantiated our IP. Basically, it showed an organization that just outstripped the competition, unbelievable performance. And one of the one of the execs his response was, oh, we outperform our competition. Now to fire, if I was the leader, I’d fire the guy on the spot, because you didn’t get it.

It’s not about outperforming the competition, it’s about being your best, you know, you can outperform the competition by this much. But what if you’re leaving this on the table? Yeah. And so not every client is for us, you know, the people that are watching this right now, you know, this, the clients that need us the most probably are the clients that are least likely to hire us. And the reason is, because they think they have it all figured out.

Because here’s the other side of it. Remember, I said accountability is not a way of doing it’s a way of thinking it’s how you think about people, I said that we have tactical commitments and relational commitments, the tactical side of the business is important, you should spend about 50% of your time on that the relational side of your business is important.

You should spend about 50% of your time on that. And the organization’s it’s been 7585 9598 99% on the tactical side of their business and ignore the relational side, or like the ones you just described, we don’t have time for that. Well, let me tell you, you don’t have time not to do it. You might be making money, but you can make a whole lot more money. But those people usually they don’t want to hear it, they won’t buy in. And if I don’t beat my head against the wall, I My advice to anyone is an executive coach or a consultant, when you’re hearing that if they’re not open, if they’re not open to doing exactly what you’re laying out, then they’re probably not a great client, because you’re supposed to be the expert at something.

Mostafa Hosseini    31:56 

Absolutely. Absolutely. So can you give us some you talked about some case studies that you’ve done with a bank, can you give us some stories about companies that you started working with? Here’s Company X, here’s an issue they had. And then when we fixed it, this was the result. Can you give us some case studies on that or stories?

Sam Silverstein  32:18 

So a couple of examples. An organization that that was operating in 35 locations at the time, I think they’re after about 50 now and four states here in the US 350 365 employees. We help them to find their values. Turnover was an issue for them. And the, you know, they hired a lot of college students. And so you’re gonna have a certain amount of turnover in that. And he told me later, you know, about a year later, we were debriefing. And he says his competitor has a 200% turnover. And he was running 25% turnover. Oh, yeah, yeah.

Now 25% turnover, your thinking is pretty high. But based on the age group that he’s hiring, that’s par for the course, but 200% turnover. I don’t even know how to stay in business. We worked with another organization, and it was small organization, 24 people. And after we help them, you know, he saw me speaking to programming came up afterwards says we don’t have any values. Can you help us with that? You almost sounded pitiful.

The reality is he didn’t have values, they just weren’t codified. They weren’t identified. They were living by some values. But there wasn’t real clarity. And the whole team wasn’t stepping out the values. So again, we let them through this process. And then we visited with them once a month, virtually, to just keep moving things forward around the values and other areas like what we’re talking about today. And here’s what what happened.

Within about six weeks, two people left the org, one person left the organization, and one person was left from the organization. So they fired one one voluntarily left, and they got rid of these two troublemakers. And it was just wonderful. They hired two new people. I asked those two people, why did you come to work here.

And the response from both of them was it was the values it was the values. Then what happened is we started hearing that the people, the employees were taking their values home with them, sharing them with the families, spouses, were saying, my spouse is better for having worked here. Holy cow who doesn’t want to hear that. And then a few months down the line, a lady was diagnosed with a malignant tumor on her spine. And this was in Texas, and she had to go up to Minnesota to get cancer treatment from the Mayo Clinic.

And the employees got together went to the President and said can we change our policy manual so that we can gift our PTO or personal time off to this woman so that she can draw an income while she’s Getting this cancer treatment. Now think about what type of relationships are going on in the organization, when people are gifting their PTO to one of their fellow employees, it means when you have a deadline, I’m gonna be there, I’ve got your back, I’m standing by you, these relationships were amazing.

Nine months in, I was speaking at a, at a trade association with a couple 100 people. And the president of this organization happened to be the president of that trade association. And he shared I had no idea he shared before he introduced me to speak because he wanted me to speak to them. He said after nine months of 910 months after working with the organization, that their activity, which is what they measured, everything by was activity had tripled, tripled. So all this goes back to values, culture, and accountability.

Mostafa Hosseini    35:52 

Love it. So in my experience, spending any time or days or weeks on figuring out the value piece and figuring out which then sets the culture and set set the tone for everything, and everybody, not a minute minute of it was a waste. So it is absolutely crucial for businesses to sit down, go through a process like yours, and figure those pieces out so that it becomes a coherent, cooperative environment, will people like to work in that environment? People are like lining up saying, I want to work at say Starbucks, why? Because I like their values, right?

Or I want to work with your company versus the other company. What because I don’t know what their values are. But I saw on yours that it’s very clear. So I can’t wait to actually hang out with you guys. And I think when we when we identify the values, people actually maybe even work harder, because it’s aligned. Well, what’s your experience with that? Yeah,

Sam Silverstein  37:00 

exactly. Now, if the leader is living the values, if he’s not doing the do, as I say, not as I do, thing, you know, I mean, it doesn’t work for parenting, it doesn’t work in leadership, it doesn’t work anywhere. If they’re actually living the values, then they set the expectation that that’s how, how it should be for everyone. And the values define that sandbox, you know, those are the rules of engagement.

So it makes it easier, we know how things are done here. You know, and sometimes, if the values are great, the other thing we’ve noticed, and maybe you’ve seen this also, not only does it impact the employees, it impacts the customers.

And you get known for those values in the community. They’re that powerful. If you’re living them to that degree, if you’re, if you’re, if you’re talking about them, it’s if you’re evangelizing those values, if you’re saying we are who we are as an organization, because of the values that we live, it has to be part of the vocabulary, the vernacular.

And then when people hear you say it all the time, then when someone comes up to you and says, Mustafa, why is your company so great? Why is it amazing, though, you’re gonna say the same thing you’ve been hearing over and over and over again, from your leader, it’s the values and so now this becomes the bedrock, the foundation, it builds it up it and like you said, you start hiring like minded people, they want to protect it, they want to live those values, they don’t want someone like me working there, that’s not living the values. And, and it creates, it really creates an amazing place.

But, guy, there’s so many organizations that, that don’t invest the time that don’t take the time that here’s the thing, you know, we’ve helped a lot of individuals create their personal values, leaders, executives, just individuals. If you ask somebody, and I’m sure you’ve done this, you go up and ask somebody, do you have values? Well, of course, do you live your life by set of values? Yes. What are your values? Well, integrity, that will always come up. Honesty, hard work. Friendship, you know, they’ll they’ll think of some things, but Okay, those are nice attributes. But are those your values do all of your decisions connect back to your values.

So when someone actually takes the time to determine what they are through a proven process, to write them down to define them, to put them on the wall so they can see them? To talk about them to share them in an organization with each other or with your family, your spouse, your friends? It’s a game changer because you know, what happens is, look, when we’re done with this live stream, you’re going back and you’re gonna have a situation and I’m going to have a situation and we’re gonna have to make a decision.

And when we have crystal clarity, and we know what our values are, we already made the decision And we’ve made every decision we’ll ever make. The facts just have to present themselves, we apply the value, and we’re done. It’s so much easier. But people that don’t take the time and I was one of those people, I, you know, I was preaching it long before I said, You know what I needed to take the time and write this down myself. It was a game changer.

Mostafa Hosseini    40:20 

Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. Now, Sam, where can people find out more about you and reach out? Well,

Sam Silverstein  40:29 

there’s several things if, if you’re, if you’re a coach or an executive coach or consultant, you want to learn more about how to put this to work not only in your practice or with your clients, check out coaching blind spot.com is a great place. And if you come to Sam silverstein.com There’s just hundreds of articles and videos and things of that nature. And I think we have something else to give away. Don’t we have a values worksheet? Yeah.

Mostafa Hosseini    40:56 

We got a your number one executive coaching blind spot quiz. Can you tell us about that and what they get when they go to, if they if you go to coaching by blind spot.com You’ll get access to them. So

Sam Silverstein  41:12 

it’s gonna be a short quiz level questions. It’s gonna identify the most important challenging area in your business in your coaching or consulting business, and then it’s gonna put you on a waitlist, because we’re finishing up a free masterclass, but in a couple of weeks, you’re gonna get an email and you’re gonna have a chance to go to a free masterclass will be about an hour where you’ll learn more, we sell nothing on that.

And you will also get a free copy of the values worksheet that helps you identify and figure out the values for yourself or your organization or something to use with your clients as well.

Mostafa Hosseini    41:47 

Love it. So gang if you want to get that quiz 11 questions to identify your blind spot, go ahead, go to coaching blind spot.com and get access to that. And then there is a free masterclass that comes after that, as well. Absolutely. Can I ask a few personal questions? Go for it. All right. What’s a new thing that you tried recently?

Sam Silverstein  42:14 

A new thing that I tried recently there’s a lot actually but I went shooting sport clays. So I was I was doing skeet shooting skeet

Mostafa Hosseini    42:32 

shooting ski,

Sam Silverstein  42:33 

sport clays, you know, they throw these clay discs up in the air and you have a shot down here. Okay, got it. You know, any Oakley? So? Yeah, so I was went out and somebody taught me I never shot a shotgun before someone taught me how to shoot sport clays. And I had an absolute blast.

Mostafa Hosseini    42:52 

Love it? What are your top favorite two or three books that have made a massive impact in your life or business?

Sam Silverstein  42:59 

Well, man that’s difficult.

Mostafa Hosseini    43:02 

In let me ask you, maybe easier question what are top two or three books that you usually recommend people to read?

Sam Silverstein  43:09 

Well, outside of mine. I think thinking Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill is such a classic book. You can never go wrong reading it or rereading it. I also think that my friend Bob Berg wrote an amazing book, The Go Giver. And I just think that that’s that’s critical reading anything from anything from OG Augmon. Dino. The greatest salesman is a great book. These are classics. These are classics, but they’re just so powerful. And so true.

Mostafa Hosseini    43:47 

Love it. So if you if you if you had a Facebook or Google ad, where everyone on the planet could see your message, what would your message for the people of planet B,

Sam Silverstein  44:00 

be accountable? That’s the billboard of it.

Mostafa Hosseini    44:08 

And we talked about that. What’s one advice

Sam Silverstein  44:13 

if there was a second one? Alright, the love people.

Mostafa Hosseini    44:20 

story behind that.

Sam Silverstein  44:24 

That connects to respect. And it’s three mindsets that make up accountability. Respect is one of them. If you ask anyone, do you have people they’re gonna tell you yes. But the reality is, you see there’s so much bias. There’s so much that just in the world, you know that you know, people aren’t treated right? You go to the you went to the wrong school, you dress the wrong way you go the wrong color skin.

You came from the wrong neighborhood. And so if we just loved people, if we just If we just said, You know what? We’re all, we’re all cut from the same cloth. And we might do things differently, we might have difference of opinion. But if we just respected people and love people and treated them that way, things would change. So it might sound sound trite, but I think I think it’s really at the core.

Mostafa Hosseini    45:21 

Absolutely. Love it. Love it. Love it. Adele is asking, Are your books targeted for coaches only.

Sam Silverstein  45:27 

Now, the books are targeted. The books are great for coaches, but they’re targeted for individuals, I have a lot of people that are just, you know, sales or just you know, whatever profession they’re in, I have a lot of leaders that buy them and read them, I have leaders buy hundreds of them and distribute them throughout their organization. So people all over the place. I have high school kids that read them.

Mostafa Hosseini    45:48 

Got it? I’m not sure if he’s asking about I’m not sure if he’s asking about your own books, or the ones that you just suggested, Adele, if you could clarify that for us. That’d be great.

Sam Silverstein  45:57 

Yeah. Anyone could the books I suggested, could be read by anyone, you know, by thinking grow rich could be read by an eighth grader, let me tell you, and would get something out of it. And the Go Giver, oh, my gosh, everyone on the planet should read that book.

Mostafa Hosseini    46:14 

He’s asking Sam, he’s asking about your own books. What I

Sam Silverstein  46:17 

own books, my own books? Well, there’s a variety. And they’re easy reads by design. But, you know, I like I said, I have a lot of people who are just trying to build a better life. They’re individuals, they’re not necessarily leaders, they buy them, then again, I have a lot of leaders that buy them. And so it’s not, they’re not technical in nature, most of them are about growing yourself so that you can then either help someone else or grow an organization.

Mostafa Hosseini    46:49 

Got it. Beauty. Now, Sam, what is one advice that made a massive change in your in your life or business?

Sam Silverstein  46:59 

Well, one piece of advice was the focus, focus, what is it that I’m all about? And when I started, when I started doing that, then then doors just started opening. And business started coming to me, rather than me chasing business. And so I, you know, I’m blessed that people come to me literally, internationally around the world looking for knowledge on accountability, either.

Either they come to me because they want more of it in their organization, or they come to me, they want to be a certified accountability advisor. And they want to know what that process is about. But but when you stay focused in an area, you develop expertise, and you become known for something, and I would say that that was probably the most important thing on my career, one of the most important things I did love it,

Mostafa Hosseini    47:49 

absolutely love it. Now, Matt Mayer, is he put a link here to Sam’s best selling books, you go to South Sam silverstein.com forward slash shop, cool access to all of Sam’s books, and he’s got a few there. Thank you, Matt. I guess you know, Matt. I do know, Matt. All right. Well, Matt, thank you for posting that.

Sam Silverstein  48:12 

I appreciate it. That was unsolicited. But I appreciate that.

Mostafa Hosseini    48:15 

I appreciate it, too. Now, Sam, what advice would you give your 20 year old self?

Sam Silverstein  48:24 

20 year old self.

Sam Silverstein  48:31 

Take the time to figure out what you perceive it that at that age is your unique purpose. Your unique purpose is what brings you joy in the service of others. From that unique purpose, you derive a mission, your mission is your unique purpose and action. unique purpose is your why your mission is your what your values are your house, figure all that out. Take the time invest in yourself, put it down on a piece of paper, make sure you see it every day.

And then step it out. And you’re gonna make enormously better decisions every minute, every hour every day and keep revisiting it. Because you know what things in our lives change. And we, we our perception of what brings us joy may evolve over time, I dare say it’s probably there when you’re 20. But you might see it differently. And so it’s that lens that we look at, which is different when you’re 25 or 35 or 55. So just keep revisiting it. But the truth is that unique purpose, it was put in early on and it’s there but we have to go look for it. Love it.

Mostafa Hosseini    49:45 

So take time to figure yourself out find your unique purpose. Find your mission, figure out your why and everything else. Because yeah, you know,

Sam Silverstein  49:53 

it’s interesting people all the time I hear this advice like I spent a fair amount of time on clubhouse and I hear people all the time Say be authentic, be authentic, be authentic. I’m going Yes, yes, yes. But most people don’t know what they authentically are. If you don’t know who and what you are, how can you be true? How can you be authentic to yourself or to others, so make that investment.

Mostafa Hosseini    50:18 

So while we’re talking about it, tell us about how you go about figuring out who you are.

Sam Silverstein  50:24 

Well, that that is how you go about it. I mean, you know, we have a course called pivot a book, too, that we take people through this and, and it is seriously. There is a process to understand what your unique purposes it is what brings you joy in the service of others. That’s what it is your purpose, your purpose is not to make a million dollars, your purposes. I mean, any, I’ve asked people that, and they say, Oh, my purpose is to make money, no, a business, a business does not stay open, unless it makes money. But making money isn’t its purpose.

I cannot live unless I breathe, but breathing is not my purpose. It’s just what I have to do to live. And so what is it that brings you joy in the service of others, because we truly only become our best self, when we allow others to help us and when we’re helping others. So your purpose is always going to be connected to service. So we need to identify that then once we identify that, then what’s the mission, the mission is that purpose in action. And so now if we know our unique mission, purpose, and we have a mission, and we’ve identified our values, we have clarity on who we are, what we’re what we’re trying to do and how we’re going to do it.

That’s a lot of clarity. And then from there, it builds out, but that’s the foundation, those are the three legs on the stool that we need to that we need to invest in, figure out how to do

Mostafa Hosseini    51:57 

love it. Love it. So if people wanted to get access to the resource they just mentioned, he said he had a book about it as well. Where did they go?

Sam Silverstein  52:05 

That link that you just head on the screen? Sam silverstein.com Ford slash shop? Yeah, or just go to sam silverstein.com? And, um, the there’s a menu bar across the top and it? Yeah, it’ll take you there, all those resources are there. If you’re a coach or consultant, and you want this to be a part of what it is that you’re sharing with your clients, go take that quiz, and then you’re gonna find out how to make that happen.

Mostafa Hosseini    52:31 

Beautiful, beautiful, Sam app, this has been an absolutely amazing conversation, is there anything you’d like to add? Before we wrap up,

Sam Silverstein  52:41 

I just want to thank you, I want to thank you for, for the way that you’ve organized this, you and your team have been absolutely amazing. And you’ve made it easy for me. And the value that you’re bringing to your followers and the people that are connected to you is enormous. And so thank you for, for honoring me and allowing me to come and share with with your people today.

Mostafa Hosseini    53:01 

Thank you, I appreciate you and I appreciate your message. Now gang, if you’re watching or listening later, are now figuring out your values. And bringing accountability into your system and into your business. Definitely helps you boost your confidence in running your business. It helps your team members to boost their confidence.

 And believe me, once your team members are confident they are going to rock your world, they’re going to rock their own world, they’re going to rock your customers world, they’re going to rock their family’s world, it is just going to be a much more much, much much more beautiful world to live in. So to get access to Sam’s gift again, go to coaching blind spot.com get access to the quiz. That is your number one executive coaching blind spot. Go from there, reach out and have a conversation. Thank you again, Sam, for joining us. Thank you guys for watching or listening later. If you have any questions, do post them in the comments on social media.

And I’ll reach out to us and we’ll get back to you questions for me or Sam. Please make sure to like and subscribe to the show. By liking the show you help us help us spread this very important message more on social media and, you know, reach out to more people and make more impact on other people’s lives. So on behalf of myself with Sam and our team, I thank you for joining us.

My name is Mostafa Hosseini  . You’re watching or listening the other confidence for entrepreneurs. Thank you for joining us and we’ll see you next week. Bye now.