Accountability – is more better?
Accountability is a two-person game.
What is most extraordinary is how it removes difficulty from the trials of personal accountability!
For most of us, particularly those who’ve chosen to be their own boss, we have fired the person who frightened us into doing what we were supposed to.
We have given ourselves the right to procrastinate. How many of us take full advantage?
Now a few stalwart individuals simply decide what they will do and do it, regularly and successfully. This article is not for them. For most of us, accountability is a much less persuasive process!
First, you avoid deciding what to do. Other tasks, of convenience and small merit, intrude on our day, and, without the benefit of forward planning, devour our discretionary time. This is a familiar model- Michael Gerber calls it “doin’ it, doin’ it, doin’ it.”
Then there’s the crisis. Dr. Covey calls this “The Tyranny Of The Urgent.” (See my article on the topic.) We welcome crisis because it justifies action without deliberation. We find it an irresitible accountabilty, but one which leaves us exhausted, and our business objectives unfulfiled.
Supposing there is no crisis facing you, you’ve already answered your emails, you have no open appointments to prepare for or attend. You move to Phase 2.
You decide what to do, reviewing many tasks.
Third, you prioritize those tasks, 1, 2, 3, A,B, C.
Finally, you decide which task you are going to work on first. Task 1A seems like a natural – (it may be among the easiest.)
You do the task, rejoice in self-approval and acclaim, and put the rest off for another day!
There are many processes for self-assignment of tasks. The prioritization proccess, 1, 2, 3, A, B,C, has had long use.
“Getting Things Done” by David Alllen is also excellent. Here you create classes of tasks (Project Tasks) which need doing, each week putting a select group into Weekly Tasks, and each day, pulling tasks from the weekly group into your daily menu.
Some swear by paper systems, others by computer-bases systems. And some are very successful an managing their workload.
IF YOU DO ALL THIS REGULARLY, CONGRATULATIONS!
THIS ARTICLE IS FOR THOSE WHO REGULARLY FAIL TO GET IMPORTANT WORK DONE, ARE SWALLOWED WHOLE BY EVERYDAY EMERGENCIES, AND FEEL THERE IS NO REAL HOPE.
Here is your solution. Generate an accountability partner – someone who’s committed to you being successful at getting your work done. Sometimes it’s a work partner. Frequently it’s a professional coach.
In either case, you have replaced the boss you fired with someone outside of yourself who will help you look objectively at your task load, make rational choices, and, once they are made, hold you to account on your promises for performance and delivery.
If your partner or coach is unpleasantly eager to hold you to account, or unable to do so, you can always fire him and start over.
You decide what you’re going to do, say you will do it, and then do it!
I don’t know about you, but I personally will give myself any sleazy excuse I can rather than admit failure, or laziness, or carelessness, or unwillingness to look ahead, or (especially) to do something I don’t want to do.
You too?
There are at least four kinds of accountability: them to you, you to them, you to you, and you to someone you trust.
Accountability – Them to you: If you have someone doing work for you, and getting paid by you, then he or she is probably accountable for delivering the finished product at a specified time. Simple.
Accountability – You to them: Most CEO’s I’ve spoken with or read about agree that they are in service of everyone in their organization. It’s what makes being a CEO such a big job if you do it fully. While authority may flow downhill, accountability appears to work in both directions. Not so simple.
Accountability – You to you! If you do not answer to yourself, you’re unlikely to manage the more complex tasks, assignments, projects, goals of a small or large business. But it’s difficult for many of us to be as tough or rigorous with ourselves as you would be with the printer or associate if he didn’t deliver on time. Flip side – some of us are tremendously tough on ourselves, and too easy on the printer!
When we fudge or procrastinate, the business suffers and we suffer. Things don’t get done, opportunities are missed, conflicts go unresolved.
Within the world of small business ownership, then, are some huge dangers we have designed into it. We know that if we’re not accountable, we cannot be successful. And we know that, as individuals, we’re dangerous “we don’t always act in our own best interests” we can be sleazy, evasive. (What I mean by “we” here is “me” and “many of my clients.” You can decide about you.)
Aided Accountability: You to someone you trust. Many of my clients use me as an “accountability partner.” I’m someone to help you keep your focus, keep the successes coming, even when you’re feeling distracted. Your accountability partner just helps you be sure that you don’t blow off the issues which are inconvenient, and important.
The real trick - you have to get past the “I dowanna, you can’t make me! “ voice of resistance that can imperil the success of a small business. One client suggests that this voice sounds very much like an angry seven-year-old!
Here’s how Aided Accountability works. You promise and publish accomplishments or goals. These can be short (one-week) and long (2 months and 12 months) accomplishments. If you don’t accomplish every promise, we review it jointly to see how we can make it happen soon – next week, next cycle, next year. There isn’t an implication of punishment or wrong-doing here. You can be proud to keep the promises you make, and when you neglect them (whatever the reason) you’re more highly motivated to complete them in the next term.
What’s easy to lose sight of – your relationship to your promises is a lot like your relationship to your bank account or your investments. You want them to go well, not all do, but the more closely you look at them, the better they are likely to fare.
You will probably agree that being fully accountable is something many avoid, and that being accountable to yourself alone is probably one of the most difficult tasks there is. Difficult, challenging and rewarding.
If we have met the enemy, and he is us, then I invite you to consider business coaching. It can open new doors for you.
It’s ironic, but after we got rid of the person who held us accountable, we discovered that something may have stopped working in our life. Many of us didn’t focus on strategy. Many of us were too much “doin’ it, doin’ it, doin’ it.” Many of us failed to commit to “CEO Time.” Frankly, it’s damn hard – we want to do the easy stuff first, and as Covey has warned us, the high-opportunity, high-profit elements in our business which are “Important But Not Urgent” are the last ones to get done. Rather, we often succumb to “The Tyranny Of The Urgent.”
Consider taking on a “partner without equity,” someone who’ll help you make promises and help you keep them. He’s called an accountability partner, and you give him the power and permission to help you hold yourself to account. He could be me.
No professional athlete is without a coach, and many employ multiple coaches – Tiger Woods had 4 different coaches a while ago. (He currently has some new issues and new coaches!) Big businesses regularly offer professional coaching to high-level employees. It’s considered a perk, and a serious investment in productivity.
But small business owners are always “on their own.” And, while you and I try to operate at the top of our productivity at all times, it doesn’t always happen. Consider what coaching might bring you.
There are a number of entrepreneurs who work with me every month. I’m their business coach, and many of them hold me as an accountability partner. Our common purpose: to get the best from ourselves. Curiously enough, it’s not all that hard. Help is good. Good help is even better.
We began with the premise that Accountability is simple, and difficult.
I offer as a conclusion, adding an accountability partner makes the Accountability proposition much easier. If accountability has been a problem for you, this can solve it – and give you huge benefits.
- 1. Much more important stuff accomplished, quickly.
- 2. A much greater understanding of your own power.
- 3. Business growth – your employees begin to model you!
Conversation? You can call me at 516 944-6454, or email Craig@craigjennings.com. And/or, please check out http://www.craigjennings.com.
The conversation is free, it’s interesting, it will be about you, and no meter will be running.
Craig Jennings
