The Benefits of Having an Accountability Partner
You work for yourself. You work from home. And maybe, if you’re truthful, you can admit that on days that you felt overwhelmed, beautiful days when you played hooky, no one was there to help you make better choices and stay accountable. Having an accountability partner helps with all of it.
I’ve had daily meetings with my accountability buddy for over four years now, so we wanted to share how it started, how it helps, and how it continues.
How and when we got together
Picture this - it was the summer of 2020, and we were all isolated at home, trying to run businesses online. Beth and I were in a small marketing mastermind where they threw out a challenge - pick someone from the group for your accountability partner. Beth, a writer, and I had met six months earlier at a networking meeting. Don’t tell her, but I thought she was cool. So we started meeting and doing whatever we were supposed to be doing for that mastermind as accountability buddies. And we just kept going, making changes when necessary.
How we structure our calls
Identifying our three top priorities for each day is the official part of our call. As a business strategist, I feel that this exercise of figuring out those top three priorities is key. It makes you stop and think, “If I only get three things done today, what should they be?” We also talk about our prior day, what went well, and what didn’t. We talk through challenges in our business and we share wins. We talk about our personal lives. Being a small business owner, working from home can be very isolating. You need a solid tribe, and Beth is my first support person.
The long-term impact on our businesses
My daily accountability call with Beth has had a tremendous impact on my business. Setting your top priorities day after day ensures you stay focused on the right things, and that creates momentum. She’s helped me launch most of my ideas and helped me solve most of my problems.
I think the daily accountability call is a tool that supports and complements my weekly CEO Hour and my quarterly planning, all of which require carving out time to work ON my business.
After working with loads of small business owners, I know this is one of the places where people get tripped up. They spend all their time IN their business, focused on deadlines for client work. This makes it too easy to get trapped in reaction mode just winging things and dealing with whatever shows up in your inbox. It takes intention to recognize daily that first, you must work ON your business.
Here’s the breakdown of how this works:
I spend time every quarter in deeper planning, choosing goals for the quarter, and creating a plan to achieve them.
I spend time weekly organizing my week and what tasks I need to complete to get closer to my key goals. I also focus on other recurring CEO activities like bookkeeping, marketing, and networking.
Our daily call is a reminder to take time each day to work ON my business. I stop and think about how I want to spend my time and what my first three priorities are.
Setting daily, bite-size “tasks” makes it so much easier to get into action consistently. I know a lot of people have weekly or monthly accountability partnerships. At that level, I imagine you’re talking about “bigger” goals and projects you are working on. Then you’re on your own to figure out the nitty gritty.
By talking daily and setting daily action items, it’s not “I’m going to work on launching this new offer” - it’s “I’m going to write the sales page for my new offer” or “I’m going to email five potential clients about my new offer” or “I’m going to send a proposal to Sally - we had a discovery call yesterday about my new offer.”
When tasks are identified and prioritized, you get into action and can feel the forward motion of your business.
Why it works for us
We have complementary skillsets and perspectives. As a writer and messaging consultant, Beth is always bringing the audience perspective and thinking about how things will be perceived. She’s a big-picture thinker and idea generator. She expands things. She’s also super helpful with “What’s a better word for XYZ?”
As the strategy person, I’m always thinking, “Well, how are we going to get that done?” and thinking about what’s around the bend and four steps from now. I bring the structure and planning to the conversation.
Here are the top reasons it just keeps going:
We share a sense of humor - and we both love to laugh.
We share values. Which has been crucial during the crazy days we are going through societally.
After four years, we can each sense if the other is facing a challenge or just having a down day. We know when to amp up the support, and that we can reach out if we need feedback or encouragement.
We respect one another, so we’re open to the critique and feedback we give each other, even if it’s tough love. We don’t hesitate to admit if we didn’t accomplish what we said we would. Our long-term engagement has made us comfortable giving the other the kick in the pants we need.
We know a lot about each other’s businesses and we know what the other shies away from and where they’ll need that extra support.
We’re both committed to our businesses and this arrangement. We show up every day - and pretty much on time.
This entrepreneur thing is no joke. So why go it alone? Finding an accountability partner can keep you focused on priorities and help you grow your business. Accountability is only one of the things I recommend to my clients. I’d love the chance to tell you about other ways I help them achieve goals and grow their businesses. SCHEDULE A CALL HERE
P.S. This is all from my point of view. If you’d like to learn Beth’s point of view, you can read it HERE.