Santa Brought Accountability And It’s Heavy

We share why competitive greatness isn’t domination but the courage to own mistakes, restore trust, and finish the year strong. From overdue apologies to faster client callbacks, we focus on action, humility, and raising the standard when no one is watching.

• defining competitive greatness as character under pressure
• choosing ownership without excuses
• practicing humility to lift others
• finishing the year strong with clarity and focus
• rebuilding trust with family, team, and customers
• culture shaped by what leaders tolerate
• the make-it-right Christmas challenge
• linking core values to SOPs and KPIs
• customers forgiving mistakes not avoidance
• preparing systems and priorities for Q1

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Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Holiday Framing
• 2:31 Year-End Focus And Finishing Strong
• 4:40 Making Wrongs Right And True Ownership
• 7:15 Humility In Leadership And Lifting Others
• 9:19 Defining Competitive Greatness
• 12:20 Accountability With Family, Team, And Customers
• 16:20 Culture, Standards, And What Leaders Tolerate
• 19:55 The Make-It-Right Christmas Challenge

Transcript

Ty Cobb Backer: 0:01

And we are back. Welcome back, everybody, to Behind The ToolBelt, episode 313. I am your host, Ty Cobb Becker, and thank you for joining us on this Wednesday edition. We will be right back after our short intro from our sponsors.

Speaker: 0:48

Every week, we pull back the curtain on the weight of real leadership. If you're still standing, you belong here. Please welcome your host of Behind the Tool Belt, Ty Cobb Backer.

Ty Cobb Backer: 1:02

And we are live. What's happening, everybody? Happy Mary. Happy Mary. Merry Christmas Eve, everybody. Man, six years, one week. Coming up on our seventh year. We only have 51 weeks left. 51 weeks. 51 episodes of Behind the Tool Belt. Until we reach our seventh year of Behind the Tool Belt. And I must say, we've crushed it, we've wrecked it, we've broke it, we've fixed it, we rebuilt it, and we're still standing. Still here. And I'd like to wish everybody a Merry Christmas and a happy new year. Today, today I want to talk about something that's probably not uh not aired enough. And I think it kind of coincides with uh our our number sixth core value. And I don't know if I've ever necessarily talked about or brought up or mentioned our our core value, uh competitive greatness. But I'm gonna I'm gonna touch on that a little bit later. I'm gonna bring that up because I I really think uh what I want to talk about today kind of kind of aligns well with that. And I think finishing off the year, finishing it off strong and and not letting up, not necessarily letting myself go into vacation mode yet, because the year's not over yet, like a lot of people, I think, out there, especially in our industry, is kind of let up a little bit. And and now is where we've uh we start watering all those seeds that we've planted over the past several months and really start digging in and and diving in and getting busy, getting busy, you know, as we approach the new year, that way we can come out of the gates, swinging on January 5th, that Monday morning. We're gonna have our shit together, we're gonna have shit stacked up, and uh we're gonna we're gonna come out swinging. So I think with all the reflection that I've done over the past several months of of how the year has gone and how we want next year to play out, and not that it'll be perfect in in any way, shape, or form, but but uh there's some things that that I've really been thinking about. And and some of that is is making our wrongs right. And not just in business, but but with family, with friends, with co-workers, even ourselves. Okay. And and Christmas, Christmas isn't about present. Um, it's about for me, reconciliation, humility, forgiveness, and shit, why not restoration, considering the fact that we are in the roofing restoration industry here. So it's about restoration and rest, getting time, being present with your family and those that you love. And that's that's my goal this this holiday season is to be where my feet are and and be present um and all those good good things. And and you know, it's not it's not about uh receiving. And and and that's that's a different topic for for another time. And uh uh giving, receiving is is just as important as as receiving. And I'm I'm starting to learn a lot more about that. I'm not a very good receiver, but it's it's about it's about the willingness to to give back, um, including apologies, ownership, and grace. You know, if if we if we believe in growth, leadership, uh, competitive greatness, like I mentioned earlier, and I'll I'll dig into that a little deeper later, um then making things right isn't optional, it's required. And and so what does it mean? What does it mean to to make wrongs right? And it's not it's not saying, I'm sorry you feel that way. That's just the way I am. I agree to disagree. That that's not it. What it is, it's taking ownership without excuses. And that last piece there, right? Because I hear a lot of people take ownership, but then they got 15 excuses after, oh, it's my fault, but but but but but that's not necessarily taking ownership, that's still deflecting the blame onto something or someone else. Taking ownership with zero excuses is something entirely different. And it and it's a skill. And skill is something that you can work on and get better at it and all that good stuff. But admitting when you are wrong, even when you're partially right, okay, being willing to have uncomfortable conversations, okay. In the Christmas story, it's about it's about humility, God stepping down, okay. And leadership, leadership works the same way, okay. The best leaders step down emotionally to lift others up, and that's probably one of the biggest things I've learned over the years, okay, is is not taking credit, lifting others up, stepping back, letting them do the work, letting them feel the fulfillment, letting them take the responsibility, letting them wreak the rewards and feel that self-worth, okay, and not snatching that from them. Okay, and that's that's probably another topic for another podcast, which I'm sure we'll we'll touch maybe a little more on that later. I'm not sure. We'll see where my mouth takes us on this Wednesday afternoon on the eve, the eve of Christmas, the holiday spirit. So I'm gonna try to define competitive greatness here a little bit. And then what I'll probably do is tell you exactly what I think, my interpretation, because a lot of people were sitting here probably thinking, yeah, we're gonna go out and kick somebody's ass. We're gonna kick everybody's ass. Yeah. So competitive greatness isn't about domination, okay? At least not along the lines of our our core value. It's it's doing the right thing when it costs you, okay. Holding yourself to to a higher standard when when no one is watching, okay, and we all know what that is, right? It's choosing character over ego, and that is hard. God is that hard, you know. You know, and and this is bottom line. I've talked about this before, but anyone can win when it's easy. When things are going easy, you can win. Competitive greatness shows up when things are going wrong, okay, and you decide to own it. Many things I've made lots of bad decisions personally and professionally, and when things go wrong, I have to own that. I have to own it, I have to learn from it, I have to clean it up, and I have to move on. But I think the most important thing is you know, owning it and and learning, learning from it. Learning from it is the biggest thing, you know, and on a smaller scale, because I had some things in mind when I was thinking that right there, but on a smaller scale, it's like, you know, just calling a homeowner back when you drop the ball. Okay. Apologizing to a team member who I've been short with, okay, having hard conversations instead of letting resentments fester or grow. Okay, so some of the areas that I have to work on, and some of the things that I have worked on, you know, is one of the areas is is with family because I have taken out, I've been the hardest on those who who are close to me. Um, you know, I'm gonna ask you a question. Is there anyone, someone out there that you need to call? Is there an apology that you've been avoiding? Okay, and these are some of the things that I've worked on this week. I have um tried to clean up some of the wreckage of my past behaviors, things that I've comments that I've made. Um, you know, it could be anything. Anything. Um, you know what it is. So, anyhow, friends, pride kills relationships quicker than anything else. And competitive greatness tells me that I value this relationship more than my pride. Okay. Sometimes things aren't going so great at work. Um, I take it out on my coworkers, um, my teammates. And and see, this is where there's there's what I call leadership moments where apologizing, you know, publicly when I was wrong, okay. Owning decisions that didn't work out. Okay. Trust is built faster through accountability than perfection. All right, so hold yourself accountable, hold yourself to a higher standard. Okay, your team doesn't need a perfect leader, okay. Your family doesn't need a perfect dad, they just need a real one, somebody that's gonna own that shit when they're wrong and not die on that hill. You know, and in business, you know, customers, customers forgive mistakes, okay? I don't know how many countless, countless mistakes that we've made. But what they don't forgive is avoidance. And that's the thing that I've learned where if I can't make it on schedule, okay, is to pick up that phone the moment we've decided there's no way in hell we're gonna make it. Pick the phone up, don't give them a bunch of excuses, give them a solid, decisive date of when you can be there, okay, because this is the deal. By the time you get off the phone, they may be pissed at first, but by the time they get off, you get off the phone with them, they're gonna be relieved, they're gonna know how to schedule their day, their week, or whatever it is, the sooner you can let them know. Okay, I would much rather have them pissed off at me for five minutes than five days of avoidance when I'm avoiding them. You know, and cultures are shaped, are shaped by what leaders tolerate in themselves. And I know that. I know that I've watched it, I've seen it here, I've seen, I've seen um our leaders, I've seen it myself, where my behaviors um are mirrored by those that are around me. I've watched um excuses being made um by our leaders and then those under them using those same excuses. I've watched it, I've seen it, I've felt it, and you're only as good as what you tolerate, especially with yourself, right? So, and a lot of this ties back to what I call competitive greatness. Okay, and great leaders don't hide, okay? They don't avoid shit. They correct, they restore, they grow, they learn from that stuff. Okay, so I got I got a I got a Christmas challenge, okay. I'm gonna call it the make it right challenge. Okay, before year ends, identify one person you need to make things right with. Okay, make the call, send the text message, have the uncomfortable conversation. Trust me, you're gonna feel like that thousand-pound gorilla has been lifted off your chest when you do that, okay? And this Christmas, don't just celebrate, you know, grace, but practice it. Competitive greatness isn't how hard we push ourselves, isn't how hard we push others, it's how willing are you to humble yourself. So practice grace, okay. Especially if you want, you know, a better family, a better business, better team members, a better team, a better department moving into um the new year here, you know, and it starts by making the wrongs right. That's where it all starts. You know, so I was talking about competitive greatness here a little bit. And what we have here, it's called core values. We have six core values. We live and die by our core values. I've talked about our three-legged stool before, where we have core values, SOPs, and KPIs. You can't have a three-legged stool without all three legs, it'll fall over just like this tripod here with the camera on it. And our core values is the foundation of how we create our SOPs, how we create our KPIs. And it took me a long time to articulate, I don't want to call it our last core value because they're they're ever flowing. Um, they're not static. They are definitely very fluid. And and so we created, and I got it from competitive greatness came from a great coach from the NCAA, uh, John Wooten. And I read his book, Competitive Greatness, um, I don't know, several months ago. And I was going through some personal turmoil. I was at war. I was with, I was at odds mentally. Usually anything that's wrong is usually the only thing that's wrong is usually, usually the six inches between my ears. So I was at war with myself. And um, I picked up this book. It was called uh competitive greatness. I did some research on John and and uh so I wanted to put into words on what what I what what I went through, what came, what was the the end result and and what came out of it. And along with our team here at work, most of it was professional stuff that I was at odds with. Um I was starting to doubt myself. And you know, if you're in business long enough, you'll go through ebbs and flows of of victories, wins, losses, learning experiences, all these things. And and uh I hit this, I hit this um, I don't even know what it was, this funk. I was in this funk for a while and I just couldn't quite put my finger on it. There was just a lot going on. We you know, we were growing and and um bringing on new people and and training, and I just felt like things weren't where they were supposed to be. And of course, I'm my own worst critic. And um, so I really wanted to get on paper what what I was experiencing and what as a team, as a family, as a company has has gone through. And uh to us, competitive greatness means, you know, performing at our best when it matters most. Okay. Competitive greatness is about finding peace in the hard battles and striving to give our very best efforts in every circumstance. Okay. It's not it's not about defeating others, okay. It's about challenging ourselves to rise above our comfort zone and embracing opportunities that test our character, our skills, and our resilience. Okay. We recognize that true greatness emerges in moments of pressure, just like a diamond, okay. When others are counting on us, when the stakes are high, and when perseverance matters most. Okay. We don't shrink, we don't hide from the challenges, we don't avoid them. Okay, I talked about that earlier. We welcome them as an opportunity to demonstrate our dedication to excellence and to inspire those around us. This core value reminds us, okay, that success is not a destination, but a daily pursuit by cultivating courage, grit, and passion for the game, whether it be life or whether it be business, we build a culture where individuals thrive under pressure. Teams bond and adversity. Okay, and victories are earned through relentless commitment. Okay, so here's what I'll leave you with. Okay, I'll leave you with this. I won't keep you guys on here all day, promise you. But thank you for joining us. I see there's quite a few people on here commenting and all the good stuff. So I haven't necessarily rolled out that core value yet. So thank you, those from our team that are watching. And uh, you got to hear our core value number six. Um, but here's what I'll leave you with. I'll leave you with this. As we head into Christmas and wrap up another year, okay. Remember this competitive greatness isn't about perfection. Okay, it's not about being perfect, it's about having the courage to own your mistakes, okay. The humility to make things right and the character that um and the character to to grow from. Okay. Um, if hold on a second, I feel like I got a fuzzy every time we close that door. I got a freaking fuzzy in my throat. As I see the I see Howie. Where's Howard? Howard actually had to go.

unknown: 20:07

Okay.

Ty Cobb Backer: 20:07

So if there's any conversations that you've been avoiding, a call that you need to make, an apology, an apology that's overdue, don't wait until the new year. Do it now. Do it right now. Soon as this is over. Okay, finish watching this first. Then then do it. Okay. This season isn't is about grace, restoration, and showing up for people that matter most. Okay, because that's really what makes you the wealthiest person in the world, is surrounding yourself around people that encourage you, love you, and that are healthy. Okay. And if you had anything to do with any of that, that in itself makes you the most wealthiest person today. Okay. So thanks for spending part right of your day with us at Behind the Tool Belt. Us and Vicky, me and Vicky, Vicky and I. What do we got? A promo?

unknown: 21:01

Bob for Bob.

Ty Cobb Backer: 21:02

Bob? Oh, yeah. And let's not forget about um we got two, we got next week, probably probably be um flying solo. And then um on December 7th, we'll have Bob Bobberg from the Go Giver. Yeah, super excited about that. So thanks for spending your day with me on Behind Tool Belt. If this episode hit home, share it with someone who needs it, needs to hear it. Okay. So from my family to yours, Merry Christmas. Be intentional, be accountable. And when it matters most, choose competitive greatness. Till next week, you guys take care of each other. Merry Christmas.