Accountability and Adversity: One CEO’s Story

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The QBQ! Workbook

In a note we received from Albert Castillo, CEO of San Antonio Eye Center, there are so many powerful messages, we felt it important to share.

John, the QBQ! book has been very inspiring for my staff. Each wrote a short essay on what the book meant to them, and many brought tears to my eyes. In return, I shared with them my own story. Here it is below:

OWNERSHIP: A Powerful Principle of Success

What’s New at QBQ!? “The QBQ! Workbook” and Everything Else!

Since 2012, Karen and I have owned a 1995 home in the Rocky Mountains. Sitting high atop a hill overlooking the “Fraser Valley,” it provides a beautiful western view.

The lower portion of our one-acre lot has an old dirt driveway leading to a dirt road. We’ve never used this driveway since we can’t get up to the house with it. This driveway simply dead-ends into the hill below the home.

Alongside this useless driveway, grass and weeds grow. No biggie, I mean—it is the mountains. So I’ve never mowed there. In fact, there’s so little grass at 8,600 feet, we don’t even keep a mower in Fraser.

Last week, though, I loaded our 22” Toro push mower into my Tacoma and delivered it 88 miles to the house in the hills. I then slid, along with the mower, down the embankment to the old driveway and mowed weeds for over an hour.

Why did I do this?

Personal Accountability: Doing Beats Thinking

I’ve been to a bunch of corporate conferences in my 20 years of keynote speaking on “Personal Accountability and the QBQ!” Usually, I can be found standing in the back of the ballroom waiting to present.

So I’ve heard lots of executives talk. Mostly, it’s industry and company specific info and technical in nature. READ: Dry and dull.

Or it is “‘rah rah’ you can succeed!!!” stuff. READ: Waste of time.

But once in a while, while admittedly half-listening, an alarm goes off in my brain.

Like yesterday.

I was waiting to deliver my accountability message to 600 Walmart managers in Arkansas when one of the execs quoted the CEO of Walmart U.S.—Greg Foran—who has said:

Outstanding People Know How To Beat The System

Sears has a problem: A completely non-consumer-friendly “appliance repair” system.

Systems aren’t perfect—we all know that. In the QBQ! book, we teach this idea: 

Don’t ask the lousy question, “When are we going to get better systems?”

Instead, ask “The Question Behind the Question” (QBQ), “What can I do to succeed with the systems I have?”

Now, back to Sears …

Searching for Random Acts of QBQ!

Have you witnessed a “Random Act of QBQ!” recently? My brother-in-law, Tom, ran across this one. Enjoy!

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John, I have a QBQ! story for you!

While at a conference in Chicago, my laptop mouse died. I wasn’t sure if it was broken or just needed a new battery.

So I went to the Candlewood Suites store in the lobby, but they didn’t have any “mice” or the battery I needed.

At the front desk, I asked Julie if they possibly had a spare mouse that another guest had left behind. She looked in their little “lost and found” cardboard box, but there weren’t any.

I thanked Julie and headed out to the conference center next door.