Accountability is not a dirty word!

The word accountability can get a bad rap.  It can immediately conjour up someone hovering over you like a task master making you do things you don’t want to do. 

Well I want to change that perception.  I love accountability!  It is so necessary for success in business or in your personal life. 

Why is accountability so important for Small Business Owners? 

Peter Drucker once said, “what gets measured, gets managed.”  If you have someone else measuring, it gets managed even better!

Today the demands of being a small business owner can mean we are always juggling and balancing to stay afloat, get ahead, and stay ahead all while trying to find some time for ourselves.  It’s easy to set goals and then let the day to day tasks distract you from moving forward to successfully achieving them.

Benefits of strong accountability partners include: 

• We all perform better if someone is watching (think of the last time you were on the treadmill next to a runner at the gym vs. working out at home!)
• Being challenged – accountability helps you stay focused on what your true goal is by asking “Why are you focused on this instead of that”?
• Deadlines get met – It’s much harder to “set aside” those goals if someone else knows about them. Setting clear deadlines and communicating those to your Accountability partner will help you finish those projects.
• Reality – “Optimism and Delusion often sleep in the same bed” – Chris Felton. An accountability partner will tell you “Stop thinking about your five year plan. What are doing tomorrow to work on your goal?”
• Learn from others mistakes, experience of outside eyes can see what you don’t see coming and save yourself time, energy and money of making mistakes.
• Encouragement when you get stuck in the weeds and a kick in the pants when it’s time to get going.
• Increased feelings of competence – when you are accountable to your goals and getting those tasks done every day, your confidence will skyrocket!  You are doing this!!!

So in the end – when we honor those small promises to ourselves and hold our selves accountable, we are more self confident and happy.  Who doesn’t want more of that in their life? 

 Who can hold you accountable for something?