15 Nov Accountability Partnerships

Accountability supports consistent success through setting goals, measuring progress, and making adjustments. In business, effective employers help their employees create and execute plans, then review the results and revise—a practice ensures that they all get ahead. Supervisors provide guidelines and then schedule feedback time to encourage growth in excellence. Managers read metrics on business performance in every area: efficiency, leverage on the market, and cash flow.

You can also incorporate accountability and a measurements to achieve personal goals with the help of a “coach.” This person is an accountability partner.

I first learned this practice several years ago from a Christian entrepreneur who paid his accountability partner to help him adhere to business commitments. It was common to have an accountability partner in his Christian community to stick to moral commitments and he decided to apply the idea to other areas of his life.

The concept intrigued me. It sounded like a worthwhile time investment as an entrepreneur. Within a month of learning about it, I met someone who was looking for the same thing, so we began keeping each other accountable.

I now have two partners for specific areas of my life. Weekly meetings work for one and the other is a daily mini-meeting. I discovered that I require less personal accountability and more collaboration and brainstorming with someone who has similar goals to keep me focused and mindful of progress.

One of my accountability partners spoke about this mutually beneficial relationship to A. Michelle Blakeley a SF Small Business Examiner in the article Why accountability partners can help you get further, faster:

My accountability partner and I speak each morning before we open our businesses. We practice our pitch with one another, which has helped me refine my sales dialogue with clients. I directly attribute a $60k contract that was signed 2 months ago to our daily accountability sessions.

Gabriel Aluisy of Shake Tampa with partner Koby Bryan.

In the article, Michelle poses the question, “…what happens when you are married to your accountability partner?” I can answer this from experience as my wife is one of my partners. We’ve found our accountability sessions extremely beneficial, an easy way to look back at our progress and plan ahead. Before we incorporated this practice, we found it hard to stop the mad rush of life to align our weekly, monthly, and life goals. As a result of our weekly meetings, we’re able to stay on the same page with our plans, confident we’re working together—even when we’re apart.

Read Part 2 here: Accountability and Pair Programming

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