8 Tips to Make Great Things Happen with an Accountability Buddy

I have a problem. Turns out I suck at prioritizing important tasks that don’t have a sense of urgency. It’s way too easy for me to get caught up with the urgent (and often unimportant) things in life. So I’m trying something new that I’m excited to share with you all! I’ve just started working with an “accountability partner” and I think you should too.

At salonMonster our blog is an important tool for communicating with our clients and other salon industry peeps. However, if I look at the frequency of our recent updates it’s embarrassing. I know I should be more diligent with updating it but things always seem to get in the way — like phone calls, emails and all the little things involved in running a business.  It’s not that writing for our blog isn’t important or even that I can’t make the time. It’s because unlike tasks that have a sense of urgency no one is going to chastise me if I don’t post to our blog on time.  

But though writing for our blog is not an urgent task, it is, in fact very important! It’s a way to connect with you, our clients, to develop ideas and to market salonMonster to potential new clients. I bet you can think of several tasks like this in your salon — things that are important but not urgent. Things that would move your business forward in leaps and bounds.

Wouldn’t it be great to make these things happen? This is where an accountability partner can help.  

The power of being accountable to someone is huge. Think about how much more likely you are to follow through on something if you’ve told other people about it? In fact, a study of behavioural medicine shows that having a workout partner can double your performance! Think of this as a gym for your business. Having a buddy to help keep you on track with your business goals can take you to the next level of success.

So what are some tips for getting yourself set up with an accountability partner?

1. Choose someone you trust — You need to feel comfortable and confident to share openly with this person. Find someone who will challenge you in a constructive way and will not put you down. They don’t have to be in your industry and in fact working with someone with a different area of expertise can often provide a much needed fresh perspective. My accountability partner is Marial of MarialWrites.com, an extremely talented writing and creativity coach who’s work I truly respect and someone I really trust. If you’re looking for help realizing your creative projects please get in touch with her.
2. Be clear about expectations — Knowing what you both want to get out of this experience will increase the likelihood of it happening.
3. Share your weaknesses — Be honest, share with your partner what you need help with. Like me I bet you have a pretty good idea what you want to achieve and what’s blocking you. Sharing this with them will give them to tools that need to help you succeed.
4. Take responsibility — Remember, your partner is there to help hold you accountable to your goals but they are not responsible for your success. This is your job. Don’t blame your partner for your failures.
5. Share the time — Always allot an equal amount of time to each partner’s business. The goal is to help both of you thrive.  
6. Define the consequences — For me it’s enough that I’m going to be truly embarrassed if I don’t have progress to report to my partner. You might want to have some fun with it though and if you don’t follow through on your commitments then you’ll be the one buying lunch next week.
7. Set a schedule — We’re doing a phone call once a week with an email check-in partway through the week. Whatever suits you and your partner is great, just make sure you plan it out to ensure it happens.
8. Choose an arrangement that works for you — If working with a single partner isn’t your style or you can’t seem to find someone consider looking for an accountability group.

I’m excited to start on my accountability journey and I hope you’ll join me by finding your own accountability partner.  Let’s make great stuff happen.

One month update 

Wow, this accountability buddy journey has turned out to be far more powerful than I expected.  I’m loving it!   I’ve not only made great progress towards my initial goals, I’ve also found it has much farther reaching implications in my life than I expected.

In the past 5 weeks I’ve written 4 blog posts.  An 80% success rate which ain’t too shabby.  Sure I wish I’d hit the mark every week but I’m still very proud of this accomplishment (although I felt super guilty the week I flopped).  Compared to my past record this is exciting!

I’ve also found that our accountability meetings have really got me thinking about a lot of other things that I didn’t expect.  The weekly discussions have been great and helped me notice patterns and behaviour both good and bad.  It’s forcing me to re-evaluate things like whether I am setting the right goals for myself.

I’m looking forward to continuing with this process and to the successes and surprises it brings.