Reader:

Accountability is more than a trait - it's a culture. And culture always starts at the top!

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Morning Minute 9.12.25

“The T.A.S.T.E. Leadership Model: Lesson #2 – Accountability”

When leaders model accountability, it gives the team permission, and the expectation, to do the same. When leaders avoid it, blame spreads, and performance collapses.​

True accountability isn’t just about owning mistakes. It’s about:

• Delivering on commitments.
• Holding others to agreed standards.
• Creating clarity on roles and results.
• Committing to excellence and continuous improvement.
• ​Giving credit generously—while taking responsibility personally.

I learned this early in my career. After just a few months of selling cars, I was called to the owner’s office. He asked me to step in as used car manager after the previous manager resigned. I protested—I was too young, I was too inexperienced, and I knew little about used cars. But the owner told me it wasn’t product knowledge, nor sales ability that mattered. It was my willingness to support others in their efforts to be successful. Plus, my willingness to take responsibility for the team.

That lesson shaped my view of leadership. Accountability is not about being the smartest in the room. It’s about owning the team’s performance, committing to continuous improvement, and creating a culture where accountability is the norm.

Final thought: The most successful coaches give credit to the players when the team wins, and accept responsibility when the team loses. Will you commit to do the same?

Morning Minute Challenge:​
What specific action will you take this week to model accountability so clearly, that your team naturally follows your lead?

“The T.A.S.T.E. Leadership Model: Lesson #2 – Accountability”

​Lesson #1 was on Truth.

Lesson #3 will be on Support.

That’s today’s Morning Minute!

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If a family member, coworker, or someone you know may find this message helpful, interesting, and/or informative, please share it with them. As always, your comments, your questions, and your observations are greatly appreciated! Reach out to me at ​lab@larryonlearning.com​.

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Here are some recent Morning Minutes you may have missed with actionable ideas, useful instruction, and step-by-step methods to help you, your family, and/or your team to be more, do more, and earn more.

​"Lesson #1 Truth; T.A.S.T.E.; Leadership Series" TRUTH is the first, and most important, component of successful leadership! Discover how that your paradigms, the filter through which your brain processes information, affects your view of people, events, and results. Learn from the example we used as a description of paradigm. Compare the many ways that being truthful affects you, your team, and you success.

​"Closer to the Problem - Faster to the Solution!" Leaders win by listening to and working with those closest to the problem. Discover 3 real life instances where getting close to the problem helped Ray Kroc, Eli Whitney, and Gen, George Patton to overcome obstacles by getting close to the people involved in the problem and working through them to achieve success. Learn how you can use this process for your success!

​"Don't Just Set Goals - Track Them!" How KPIs turn big objectives into daily progress! You can't Improve what you don't measure. Learn how that KPI's turn your goals into measurable activities. Discover a real live example of how that realistic goals are made easier to understand by using KPIs!

​"Success or Failure - What's The Better Teachers?" Explore the age old question: Is Success or Failure your best teacher? Learn how the Commitment to Excellence, the Commitment to Continuous Improvement, and the Adaptability to change, control what and how you learn. Discover 3 stories that display how each of these control how and what you learn.

​"You Can't Use What You Know - Only What You Practice!" This video explains the missing link between what you learn and your professional excellence! Knowledge is of little value until you put it into action. Discover 4 sample career paths that require practice to develop your professional skills. Learn how that only perfect practice can give you the skills required to achieve excellence in your occupation!

​"The Secret to Making Confident Decisions!" We all are required to make decisions. This message is about how to make the big decisions. Discover how a Memorial Day sales event displays the 4 elements of effective decision-making. Learn to use these 4 steps to guide you as you make the "big" decisions.

​"Observe, Document, Submit, and File!" Discover a proven process to defend you and your business against huge insurance claims and massive insurance settlements. Learn the 4 steps that can save your business in court. Use this process to reduce legal risk and keep lawsuits from draining your business.

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SPECIAL MESSAGE:

For me, the brutal murder of the young Ukrainian refugee on a train in Charlotte brought back many horrible memories of our 3 years in Charlotte. The crime there in the 1970's was just as out of control as it is today. One of my managers, a married father of 3, was murdered while making a $256 bank deposit. A 67 year old woman, waiting to pick someone up at the bus station, was knifed to death for less than $20. My restaurants were robbed over a dozen times with the robbers threatening to shoot our people. They would lock them in a freezer, telling them if they came out before 20 minutes they would be killed. They accosted team members taking out the trash at night after closing, going in to steal any money that was there and rob the staff. They hid in the bathrooms at closing so they would be unnoticed and then came out to rob and threaten our people. They would climb the roof access ladders and wait for all to leave, then burrow their way through the roof, leaving with the safe and all it contents. The mayor, John Belk, and all the city counsel were as inept then as their current leadership is today.

Rudy Giuliani and Bill Bratton showed how to drastically reduce crime in NYC in the 1990's. They used proactive policing, citizen education, the reduction of urban blight, and a "can do" total approach to municipal government accountability. Their efforts reduced crime by 80% making NYC one of the safest large cities in America. We need a return to this proactive approach, the ouster of current biased or incompetent government officials at any level, who either can't, or won't do their jobs. We must recall ALL soft-on-crime judges and district attorneys, an immediate end to cash bail, a return to the 3 strikes rule, and the appointment of people to parole boards who have first hand experience protecting citizens instead of lawyers who are insulated from the results of their actions. We are citizens of the United States of America. We have the ability and the duty to eliminate this scourge of lawlessness. We must demand more of our leaders and of ourselves.

Most importantly, we need Jesus to help us out of this self-imposed quagmire. Our founding documents clearly state that our rights come from God, and they cannot be taken away by corrupt politicians, political judges, or godless school boards. As tragic and horrible as was the murder of Charlie Kirk, we must use that awful act to steel our resolve to return our country to the values taught by Jesus Christ, His prophets, and His apostles. Yes, this situation requires a national revival to get God back on our side, and to return our country back to Him and to those who serve him.

Yes, we need Jesus and a heaping dose of old fashioned common sense. The alternative for us is to continue our downward spiral into lawlessness, no accountability, and the eventual end of the USA.

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May God bless you, your family, and your team.

And, may He bless and heal the USA!

Larry A. Bonorato

lab@larryonlearning.com 864-630-2625

(published by Bonorato Creative Group, LLC; all rights reserved)