Most busy professionals are great at planning all the Things That Need to be Done. It’s in the actual doing of the things that the plan goes wonky.
That’s because most busy professionals are missing a key team member: an accountability partner.
Accountability is the glue that sticks commitment to results. It’s what keeps “I will post five times a week to LinkedIn” from turning into “I planned to post to LinkedIn, but I got busy. And then I felt bad for not doing it, so now I’m scrolling TikTok for kitten videos.”
How accountability works
Most people rely on internal accountability to achieve their goals. That’s when you promise yourself you are going to Do the Thing.
Internal accountability’s not a great motivator. With competing priorities and a busy schedule, you start reasoning that the thing you wanted isn’t that important after all as you guiltily push it to the back burner.
External accountability works much better. It’s uncomfortable to explain to someone else why you didn’t Do the Thing you said you would.
Just telling someone about your action plan makes you 65 percent more likely to achieve your goal. If that person regularly checks in on your progress your chances of success rocket up by 95 percent.
We can’t speak for you, but in our business, anything that improves the chances of reaching a goal by 95 percent is definitely worth taking a look at.
How an accountability partner helps you reach your goals
If you have a long list of abandoned goals, start by cutting yourself some slack. You’re not lazy. There are a lot of valid (sounding) reasons for not following through. Which one you tell yourself depends largely on your personality type.
Perfectionists have a hard time letting go of imperfect work. If it can’t be perfect, they don’t even want to start.
Helper types have a bad habit of prioritising everyone else’s projects, leaving no time to chase their goals.
Deep thinkers get so caught up in one piece of a project they neglect everything else.
Passive types procrastinate any activity that might be met with conflict or resistance.
All those sound reasonable inside your head. But when you say them out loud, they lose their zing.
Telling an accountability partner what got in the way of meeting your commitment helps you see what’s an actual obstacle and what’s an excuse.
What does an accountability partner do?
An accountability partner provides structure, discipline and follow-up to keep you moving toward your goals.
They’re firm, sometimes bossy but always kind. They’ll be honest with you and force you to be honest with yourself about what’s really getting in your way.
HELPS YOU SET GOALS
Your accountability partner helps you get clear on the Big Goals for your business, because fuzzy goals never get accomplished.
Once your Big Goal is set, they’ll help you map out the projects and milestones that ladder up to it.
A good accountability partner is a master of systems. They break up goals into smaller and smaller milestone projects, then create realistic action plans so you always know what to do next.
FOLLOWS UP
At regularly scheduled follow-up meetings, your follow-up manager will review goals and tasks with everyone on the team. Everyone’s motivated to get their work done because no one wants to sit in front of their colleagues and admit they let things slide.
To keep that from happening, your accountability partner also checks in between meetings via text, Slack or whatever internal channels your team uses to communicate.
If someone’s confused, overwhelmed or running into obstacles, your accountability partner clears the way and gets things moving again.
HOLDS YOU ACCOUNTABLE
If your goals are realistic, accountability is the single most important factor in achieving them.
Working with an accountability partner means one by one, you and your team look someone in the eye and make a verbal commitment that you will do the tasks before you.
If follow-up time comes and tasks remain undone, your partner won’t let you off the hook without a good explanation and a plan to keep it from happening again.
REMOVES ROADBLOCKS
Every journey has its obstacles. Left unaddressed, even minor roadblocks can derail a good action plan.
When an obstacle crops up and it’s not immediately clear how to deal with it, it feels easier to turn your focus to less mentally draining tasks. This just compounds when team members come to you asking for help clearing their roadblocks, too.
Before you know it, the journey’s made a detour to Procrastination Station.
An accountability partner identifies obstacles while they’re still small, before they’ve knocked anything too far off-kilter. They’ll either clear the way for you or help you come up with a plan to overcome the roadblock and avoid it in the future.
CLEARS YOUR WAY
It’s not always procrastination that gets in the way of our goals. It’s also just the limited amount of time in the day.
You might start the day with the best of intentions to work on your action plan, but by the time you’re done with your meetings, email, payroll, sales follow-up and the thousand and two other important little time eaters on your plate, the day is done and you’re exhausted.
Having someone on your team who understands your goals and knows what’s on your action plan is a saving grace for busy execs. They can take all those administrative headaches off your plate and leave you time and energy to focus on the big things.
How to work with an accountability partner
SET UP SYSTEMS
One reason we’re more likely to fail when we go after goals alone is that we fall in love with the goal and get disenchanted by the hard work to get there.
Your accountability partner will set up systems to get that hard work done. They’ll map out the path to the Big Goal and then, instead of focusing on the dream, they’ll keep you focused on progress.
James Clear, the author of Atomic Habits, uses the analogy of a basketball team to explain why this works. If a basketball coach ignored the Big Goal of winning a championship, and instead focused only on what the team does in practice each day, they’d probably win the championship anyway. Because it’s the daily reps that put the Big Goal in reach.
USE DAILY TASK LISTS
If the key to achieving your Big Goal is to make a little progress each day, daily task lists keep you on track. Both you and your accountability partner should have access to this list. Include the tasks you will complete every day and the tasks they can complete to support you.
There are a zillion ways to manage a task list. Here are a few of our favorites:
Smartsheet
Microsoft To-Do
Monday
TeuxDeux
Asana
MANAGE YOUR CALENDAR
Put all your project’s important dates in your calendar – like deadlines, team member notifications and regular accountability checks.
Keep your calendar updated with all your other events and priorities, too – like out-of-office dates, smaller projects, even your best friend’s birthday lunch.
When everything is together in one place, it’s easier to spot conflicts and adjust schedules before they become a problem.
COMMUNICATE
Your accountability partner can’t help you if you don’t let them. In the beginning, brainstorm with them and listen to ideas and suggestions to help you reach your goal. Check in with them frequently. If you encounter an obstacle, get their input on developing a solution.
LET THEM CLEAR THE WAY
A virtual assistant makes an ideal accountability partner. They bring experience of what they’ve seen work (and fail) at other companies. They’re masters of systems and task management. And they can take time-sucking administrative work off your plate so you can focus on your most important to-dos.
Plus, an assistant can act as a follow-up manager not just for you, but for every person on your team. And flexible scheduling means you can hire them for just the time you need – way more affordable than making a regular hire.
If you’re ready to move 95 percent closer to achieving your goals, book a consult and see how we can help you get there.
