
No one achieves a goal on their own.
No one.
True success is the work of many hands and hearts, in unison, as it should be.
When you consider goal setting and achievement, the concept of accountability challenges you to take stock of your responsibilities and how they can be met, safely and successfully. And when I say safely, I don’t mean risk-averse. I mean without possibly killing yourself from overwhelm, burnout or breakdown. Add “partner” to “accountability” and you’ve got all the makings of success, right within reach.
According to a study done by ATD (Association for Talent Development), here are the statistics for the probability of completing a goal:
- 10% if you hear an idea
- 40% if you decide when you will do it
- 50% if you plan how you will do it
- 65% if you commit to someone else you will do it
- 95% if you have a specific accountability partner and scheduled meetings
Who sets a goal with the intention of NOT seeing it through to fruition? Hands? Anyone?
Exactly!
But finding a reliable accountability partner can be hard. Working with friends or associates that have similar goals can help in the immediate, but life often gets in the way of our plans and sometimes, those meetings can fall by the way side.
Having a third-party accountability partner solves a few issues:
1. You are starting with a clean slate.
2. You can get an objective point of view and guidance/support on achieving your goals.
3. You gain access to a different experience and a different network to leverage in
achieving your goals.
And as per ATD, the research bears out that the key ingredient to goal achievement is not just accountability, but a partner to hold you to what you say you’re going to do.
How many times have you decided to work on a new project and decided mid-way through to scrap it for any number of reasons? And it was easy to just drop new projects because you were probably the only one that new about or could easily explain it away to others that there wasn’t enough time or resources or energy or money. I said in a previous post that it’s not about motivation, it’s about discipline. Having an accountability partner is an additional measure to ensure discipline. When you acknowledge that you need support (and we all do), working with a partner is the next logical step.
So what does it look like when I work with my clients as their accountability partner?
