Being accountable is so important for anyone who has their own business. However often the word accountable is used by people when they don’t really understand its meaning. There is more to it than being held to account for one’s actions. At a basic level, it is about being accountable for the results of your choices and actions after the fact.
According to the Merriam Webster Dictionary, the definition of accountability is “the quality or state of being accountable especially: an obligation or willingness to accept responsibility or to account for one’s actions”
When we think about accountability it may result in positive or negative thoughts about it. for some people it can have a deep meaning and has a level of ownership that entails making, keeping and answering for any personal commitments for current and past efforts.
whereas for others it can be seen as something that happens to them and should be feared because it often hurts them and evokes feelings of poor performance, powerlessness, belittling, failure, defeat, and more! Because typically, when things are going well no one asks “Who is accountable for this success?”
Fundamentally for an individual, there are two different types of accountability which of course can be broken down to further levels. First, we have internal accountability which is about being accountable to oneself which is about being personally committed to your own values and goals and living up to them. It is an ongoing habitual commitment to yourself and what matters to you and consciously choosing to take ownership and responsibility for your life. It is not about finding other people to blame or making excuses it is about taking action and overcoming any blocks along the way. Being personally responsible all of the time in all areas of our life can be challenging but the payoff is worth it. Being personally accountable has many benefits and can result in an increase in productivity, being more focused, a reduction in stress, improved use of time, as well as improved job and personal satisfaction. Your credibility in other people’s opinion, as well as their trust and respect for you, will be based on your personal accountability.
For many of us, personal accountability to our self can be weak but it is a skill we can develop however it can be difficult to do it on your own. We often find that in some areas of our life we may be good at being personally accountable and in other areas we are not, and this can change over time as we adopt new habits and abandon old ones throughout our lives.
Second is external accountability which comes from being accountable to other people or a body outside of the individual and requires social interaction where one party requires answers and rectification and the other party who is being held to account responds and accepts sanctions. The person demanding answers will often have authority over the person being accountable (although it could be voluntary). But external accountability can also motivate people and help them to keep focused on a goal.
Reporting to someone else is ultimately always a choice. The person you report to maybe someone you care about or it could be a coach or it could be in a job– you can always quit your job.
We become more accountable when our motivation increases which motivate us to take action and be accountable to ourselves or someone else. As I have already mentioned accountability to ourselves is weak whereas it is stronger when it is to someone else. Just like personal habits you also have habits in business some of which are good and some of which are not so good. Success is business comes from a rhythm of good habits that are driven by goals and accountability.
Being a business owner can be a lonely journey where we have to motivate ourselves and for many business owners, they don’t have anyone to turn to who really understand what they are going through. It can also be difficult to see the forest for the trees and often we end up working on our business instead of on our business.
When you have your own business, you may not be obviously accountable to anyone although in reality we are still ultimately are accountable to our family and stakeholders in our business – investors, staff, client/customers. But often no one is going to make sure that you have made the right decisions, or you have completed tasks on time or at all like you would experience if you had a ‘boss’. No one is going to tell you what to do, how to do it when to do it or give you a structure. It can be easy to get comfortable with what we know and have blind spots that we are not aware of.
Consider the following question. Is it easier to let yourself down or is it easier to let a friend down? Putting this another way is it easier to be late for a meeting that you have scheduled with someone else than it is to be late for a meeting that you have scheduled with oneself? We would never want to be 30 minutes late meeting a very important customer or someone important to the success of our business but we are often 30 minutes late or miss the appointment altogether for the appointments we book with ourselves either in business or personally. We complete tasks behind the schedule we committed to ourselves or sometimes we never complete them at all.
When you hold yourself personally accountable to the values and beliefs that reflect a high moral compass that your employees share, and it is evident to the people who work in your business, it is more likely that you are going to be respected by them and they will want to support you in achieving the goals of your business.
Peter Drucker once said, “what gets measured, gets managed.”
What he was saying is that through accountability we will stick to our commitments and achieve our goals when we are held to account by others. When you own a business, this may seem difficult to achieve because you do not report to anyone directly. One way that accountability can be achieved for a business owner is by having a coach or being in business mastermind.
It has been found that we make better choices and we perform at a higher level when we are being monitored by other people. For example, you are more likely to show up at a gym to do a work out if you have a training partner or a personal trainer than if you don’t. What’s more, when you work out with a training partner or personal trainer you will probably work harder. You will also be more likely to continue your fitness plan in the long term when you are accountable to someone else.
This effect is sometimes referred to as the ‘observer effect’ and was first observed in a study by Henry A. Landsberger known as the “Hawthorne effect” which found that people modify an aspect of their behaviour in response to their awareness of being observed. It was noticed that increased attention could lead to increases in workers’ productivity. This was dubbed “the Hawthorne effect”. The workers’ productivity seemed to improve when observed, and it slumped when they were not. The productivity gain seemed to occur as a result of the motivational effect on the people of the interest being shown in them.
When you are accountable to someone such as a coach or mastermind group it also provides the opportunity for honest feedback. It ensures that you are clear on what you are trying to achieve and you can explain it to someone else. They may ask you questions about your objective or goal which makes sure that you have clarity about what and why you are trying to achieve something. This may also sometime make you realise that you are not clear on what you are doing and you need to research it more or you may even realise it isn’t what you want to do. As you push forward to achieve your objective being accountable also provides you with essential feedback which will allow you to make essential course corrections along the way.
With a guide by your side who you are accountable to you are more likely to make better decisions and less likely to make poor decisions. The increased thoughts and clarity that you have will ensure you make better decisions. You will be able to identify potential challenges that you may not have otherwise considered. If you are working with a coach who has real-world experience of running a business, they can help you to avoid some of the pitfalls that would likely trip you up on your journey allowing you to shortcut the learning curve and save you money, time and prevent fatal mistakes. When you do make mistakes, you will be able to discuss how you can prevent making similar mistakes in the future.
From time to time you are going to be faced with small challenges or problems which if not dealt with properly may turn into big challenges. It can often be very easy to ignore these because they don’t seem important. When you are accountable to a business coach, they provide an additional layer of protection against ignoring insidious challenges. On the other hand, it may be the case that you are concerning yourself overly on small things that don’t matter and a good business coach can help you to bring a sense of perspective to these things.
When you have a business, it is also important to have a way of having reality checks. This can be achieved by having goals and benchmarks and it is obviously important to be optimistic about your goals and objectives. For some people, they believe in their ability to achieve their goals without taking action and for others, they may take action and start to move towards their goals ignoring important data that necessitates some course correction along the way. With proper accountability, your goals will be more achievable because you will avoid making these types of errors. When you work with a good business coach, they will hold you accountable and challenge you while also encouraging you at the same time. They will help you to move you towards achieving your goals and at the same time keep you focused on what needs to be done today to move you closer to achieving your dream.
to create milestones and benchmarks
When you work with someone who holds you accountable, they will also help you break your goals down into more manageable bitesize chunks with action steps and milestones at particular dates along the way. Doing this makes you think a lot more about your goal and makes it more likely you will achieve it. When you add being accountable to a coach the likelihood of achieving your goals increases even further.
Moment of honesty
When you work with a coach who holds you accountable you are much more likely to be successful because there is a push and pull effect that moves you intentionally towards your goals. Internally you will perform at a higher level with more clarity and be more likely to achieve your goals. Externally your coach will encourage you and guide you to making the right choices so you avoid making some of the mistakes you would have otherwise made.
Without this type of accountability, it is less likely you will achieve your goals and objectives.