THE LIFESTYLE ENTREPRENEUR

Read time - 4 minutes

Accountability

Accountability is a large part of my life at this point.

Personally I use it to achieve my goals and do better in life.

Professionally I use it every day with clients.

This last week I gave a wellness talk with a group of 30ish business leaders - and the closing theme of how to make it all work - create accountability.

I also had dinner with one of my clients - the whole leadership team actually - who was struggling with a key employee and what to do with her. One of the main issues - their employee hated being held accountable for things.

The more I live on this earth - and the more I help people and teams get better at their businesses - the more I believe discipline and accountability are the hallmarks of getting what we want out of life.

Why accountability works

Dr Gail Matthews conducted an often cited study of individuals performing varied goal setting activities. They ranged from simply thinking about their goals, to writing them down and sharing weekly updates with an accountability partner.

Unsurprisingly - the people who had to share their goals and update weekly with a partner were 33% more successful in accomplishing their goals.

That’s a pretty stark difference - if you’ve done any kind of goal setting in your life you probably won’t be surprised. Writing down clear goals, and reporting on their progress with accountability partners just flat out works.

How to create accountability partners

One attendee last week asked me about creating accountability in his personal goals. He has a leadership team where they report on weekly measurables, but he didn’t want to include his personal goals on there. So where does a busy professional get accountability? The answer isn’t as simple as one may think - because we all have unique situations, needs, and commitments.

I’ll give a summary of my answer to him and what the other attendees helped out with, along with a summary of all the areas I create accountability in my life.

For him my general answer was - where in your current life setup can you get accountability?

• Spouse

• Your peer group (this group is all part of the same peer group)

• Your assistant

• A group of buddies

Can any of these groups give you the accountability you need? If so, perfect. If not - what about paying for accountability?

• For fitness - hire a trainer

• For relationships - hire a relationship coach

• For your career - hire an executive coach

Paying for accountability is very effective if you 1) find the right person, and 2) put in the work.

We went through a few goal examples - and I don’t think there was one that stumped us in terms of where we could find some accountability if we’re willing to put in some time, money, or both.

What I currently do

I have multiple layers and groups of accountability to help me achieve my goals. Here’s a few:

• Professional

  • EOS Implementers overall have to report their numbers every quarter - we do it in person

  • I’m also part of a 9 person Implementer group that meets weekly and reports on our weekly numbers

  • I’m also a member of a peer group that meets 1x a month, and we make commitments and generally hold eachother accountable.

• Wellness

  • I mostly exercise in group classes

    • CrossFit classes don’t allow you to slack on the intensity, all you have to do is show up

    • Jiu Jitsu is entirely class-based - same as above, all you have to do is show up and you’ll get a great workout and get better for many years.

    • For strength training I’ve followed a set program off and on for the past year - which makes it much easier to stick to my workouts

    • I meet at a friend’s house on Sunday mornings for a workout in his garage followed by a sauna - it’s a great way to increase likelihood of getting a good workout in on the weekends, it’s also excellent connection time with friends

• Relationships/parenting

  • I do a weekly meeting with my first wife, Andrea, and we have a parenting scorecard that we share each week, along with to-do’s we assign eachother

  • I do a monthly meeting with my partner where we score our life satisfaction and solve issues for our family and relationship

• Money

  • I have a bookkeeper do my financials monthly, along with a CPA I meet with a few times a year for planning and updates

  • I have a financial advisor I meet with once or twice a year to adjust and check-in on my financial planning

  • One are I’m working on improving is my financial management with my partner - I have not been excellent in this area and I’ve recently started following the material of Ramit Sethi - who has a series of books and programs for financial management for couples. I’m willing to invest in his programs if I fail to follow them on a DIY basis.

• General

  • I have a full-time assistant who manages my EOS practice - I also report on personal scorecard items with him and he is starting to call me out when I’m off track

  • I’ve hired a 1:1 executive coach in the past and am likely to use one again at certain points when I want to focus on certain goals

  • I’ve used a therapist for periods of time in the past 6 years

When put down on paper, it’s a pretty comprehensive and substantial amount of groups and mechanisms for accountability.

There’s a fine line here - too much is too much work and will have diminishing returns of effectiveness. So my recommendation is to audit your groups periodically - do you have not enough, too much, or just the right amount of accountability in your life?

One way to figure this out is to have a clear set of goals for the year, and identify where the accountability is primarily going to come from for that goal.

Once you clearly assigned accountability to each goal, are there any groups without assignments? If so - what are those groups providing you, and should you keep them?

I hope you’re off to a great start this year - and to make it better - I hope a little reflection around where your accountability is coming with make you bulletproof.

Talk to you next week,

Mike