Estimated reading time: 3 minutes, 3 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: Don’t hold yourself accountable
— From The Art of People: 11 Simple People Skills That Will Get You Everything You Want by Dave Kerpen
Dave Kerpen, author of The Art of People tells a story in which the members of his eight-person entrepreneurial group kept missing each of their goals.
This was a group that met monthly, and over the previous year, the members of the group had been working on achieving some personal goals. However, these eight successful and driven, otherwise super-achievers, were not hitting the mark.
As they were wondering what was happening for them to keep coming short of their goals, one of the members named Ben said, “We’re not hitting our goals because we’re not accountable enough. Starting today, we’ll each have a goal accountability partner. You are to check in with your partner at least once a week. First up, reassess all goals together and make sure they’re SMART goals (Simple, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timebound). Then, instead of you updating the group at our monthly meeting with your progress, your partner will update the group on how well you’re doing and you will update the group on how well your partner is doing.”
What do you think happened over the next months? Yes, everybody hit their goals.
Instead of us holding ourselves accountable, Kerpen says, “we should be letting others hold us accountable for our successes and failures. Why? Because when you are accountable to another human being you trust and respect, it makes you want to work harder to achieve the goals you set.”
An additional advantage of being accountable to another person is that you realize how lame your excuses are: while in your mind a rainy day sounds reasonable enough not to go to the gym, your accountability partner won’t let you get away with it. Also, one accountability partner to help you and whom you can help is ideal, says Kerpen, because “when you’re accountable to too many people, it’s like being accountable to no one.”
This accountability-buddy system works particularly well in a business setting too. Kerpen gives us three keys to making this happen:
- Assign accountability partners who trust and respect each other.
- Set SMART goals together.
- Check in at least once a week, ideally twice a week, with one another.
Whether for business or personal goals, this last point on checking in doesn’t have to take long, a quick email will do—the important part is to be accountable to the other person.
Happy accountability!
ACTION
TODAY: Think about the benefits of finding an accountability partner. What goals are you struggling with that you’d like to see achieved with your buddy’s help? Make a call or send an email, and invite that person to help you in exchange for you helping as well. You don’t have to have a larger group to report to, it can be just the two of you. And it doesn’t have to take too much time: you can check in every week via email and visit by phone, video or in person once a month.
FUTURE: An accountability partner will help you achieve your goals and you will do the same for him or her. But how about those times when you have a very specific goal in mind? Think about a combo accountability and guidance. Could you find a partner to keep you accountable who can answer specific questions and guide you too? Could you do this for him/her too with your experience and expertise? This may need a bit more digging to find the right person, but it could be immensely helpful for both because you are exchanging accountability and expertise at once.
How about sharing this post with your accountability buddy? Send it to him or her via email, Facebook or Twitter, thanks!