At a recent Mega Chapter Meeting of over 100 business professionals networking intentionally, BNI Sydney‘s Liza Garrido took the floor and said something that stopped the room:
“The opposite of accountability isn’t freedom. It’s inconsistency.”
Liza Garrido, Executive Director, BNI Sydney
She was talking about BNI chapters. But she was really talking about every business in that room — and yours.
The Chapter You Choose to Be (Is the Business You Choose to Run)
There are businesses that just operate, and businesses that truly perform. You’ve seen both. You’ve probably worked with both.
The ones that just operate show up, go through the motions, and wonder why growth is slow. The ones that perform have an energy to them — referrals flow, clients return, and people want to be part of what they’re building.
The difference isn’t luck, market conditions, or even talent. It’s standards.
As Liza put it: when standards fall in a chapter, energy falls, attendance weakens, and referrals dry up. Flip that around, and a high-standard environment attracts quality clients, quality partners, and quality opportunities. The same dynamic plays out inside every business, every day.
Standards Aren’t Rules — They’re Protection
One of the most powerful reframes Liza offered was this: standards aren’t about rules. They’re about protecting something valuable — your reputation, your time, your relationships, and ultimately your business.
Think about what your standards actually protect inside your organization:
- Your reputation: every touchpoint a client has with your team is either reinforcing or eroding what you’ve built
- Your time: consistent processes mean less firefighting and more forward momentum
- Your relationships: with clients, suppliers, and your own team
- Your revenue: because trust converts, and trust is built through consistency
When you let a standard slip — a late or incorrect deliverable you don’t address, a meeting that starts without an agenda, a follow-up that never happens — you’re not just dropping the ball once. You’re signaling what’s acceptable. And people don’t forget that signal.
Accountability Is a Partnership, Not a Punishment
Here’s where most businesses get it wrong: they treat accountability like policing.
Liza reframes it beautifully.
Accountability, done right, says: “I respect you. I want you to succeed. You matter to me. That’s why I’m giving you honest feedback. That’s why I’m holding you to the standard we agreed on.”
Liza Garrido, Executive Director, BNI Sydney
This mindset shift changes everything. When accountability is tied to care rather than control, people lean in instead of shutting down. They stop seeing feedback as criticism and start seeing it as investment.
In a business context, this means:
- Managers who hold team members accountable are doing so because they believe in that person’s capacity to perform — not because they’re trying to catch them out
- Leaders who model the standard they expect make the standard feel achievable, not arbitrary
- Team members who hold each other accountable create a culture where excellence becomes the norm, not the exception
The Real Cost of Inconsistency
Liza’s line about consistency is worth sitting with:
“When you are consistently inconsistent, it erodes trust over time.”
Liza Garrido, Executive Director, BNI Sydney
In business, trust is currency. And inconsistency is a slow leak in the tank.
Your clients don’t just buy your product or service — they buy their confidence in you. That confidence is built not in grand gestures but in the small, repeated moments: the proposal delivered when you said it would be, the meeting that starts on time, the follow-up that actually happens.
When those moments are unreliable, clients start hedging. They stop referring you. They keep looking for a backup option. You become, as Liza puts it, unreferable.
Her advice? Stop asking for referrals. Make yourself referable. And referability is built entirely on the consistency of your standards.
It’s Not a Handful Doing Everything — It’s Everyone Doing Their Part
Great businesses aren’t built by one superstar carrying the load. They’re built by every person in the organization doing their small part, consistently.
That means:
- Showing up prepared — to meetings, to client calls, to every interaction
- Communicating proactively when something’s off-track (“I’m running late,” “I need more time,” “Here’s who’ll cover for me”)
- Making every client touchpoint intentional, not accidental
- Taking ownership of your role rather than waiting to be told
Each of these actions either strengthens or weakens the whole. It’s worth asking honestly: are the habits I bring to work each day lifting the standard or lowering it?
Leadership Is a Privilege — And a Responsibility
For those in leadership roles — whether you’re a founder, a manager, or simply someone others look to — Liza’s words land with particular weight.
She shared advice from her business coach: “When standards in my region fall, it’s because I have allowed it to fall.”
People don’t do what you say. They do what you tolerate.
If you want a business built on high standards, you have to:
- Model the behavior you want to see — not just talk about it
- Give timely, supportive feedback when things aren’t right — not six months later in a performance review
- Recognize and celebrate the behaviors you want more of
Servant leadership isn’t soft leadership. It’s the hardest kind — because it requires you to be the standard before you can expect it of anyone else.
Culture Is Built in Small Moments
Culture isn’t created in the big speech, the annual offsite, or the values poster on the wall. It’s created in the small moments — the conversation you have when a standard slips, the recognition you give when someone goes above and beyond, the way you handle a difficult client situation when no one’s watching.
Accountability and standards, practiced daily and at every level, become the culture. And culture becomes the thing that separates the businesses that just operate from the ones that truly perform.
Your 10% Challenge
Liza closed with a challenge that’s simple in concept and significant in impact:
What would it look like to raise your standard by just 10%?
Not a complete overhaul. Not a new strategy. Just 10% more preparation. 10% more intention. 10% more ownership.
At scale — across a team, across a business — that’s not a small shift. That’s a different company.
So the question is yours: What are you going to do in the next few months to lift your standard by 10%?
Make it obvious. Make it visible. Make it felt.
