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Aided Accountability

Written by: Craig Jennings

Article Overview: Successful entrepreneurs create and invent - and then they fulfill. They fulfill by saying what they are going to do, and then doing it! Making promises to others or yourself, and then keeping them, is what this article is about. Sounds simple. You and I know it isn't!

Aided Accountability

Aided Accountability! This newsletter is about the rest of your life, and mine. There is no success without accountability. But if you'd rather have people accountable to you than be accountable to them, this newsletter may be for you.


There are at least three kinds of accountability: them to you, you to you, you to us.


1. Them to you: If you have a printer doing work for you, and getting paid by you, then he or she is probably accountable for delivering the finished product at a specified time. Simple.


2. You to you. If you do not answer to yourself, you're unlikely to manage the more complex tasks, assignments, projects, goals of a small business. But it's difficult for many of us to be as tough or rigorous with ourselves as you would be with the printer if he didn't deliver on time. It seems that most entrepreneurs take on their own business and their own sovereignty in order to avoid taking orders from "the man" particularly when "the man" was a jerk. And we acknowledge that we have earned the right to do what we have to do when (and not until) we choose to do it. This includes the right to procrastinate. On the other hand, when we procrastinate, the business suffers and we suffer. Things don't get done, opportunities are missed, conflicts go unresolved. And it happens to us all. Sometimes, we're the jerk! Within the world of small business ownership, then, are some dangers we've designed into it. We know that if we're not accountable, we cannot be successful. And we know that, as individuals, we're dangerous "we don't always act in our own best interests" we can be sleazy, evasive. (What I mean by "we" here is "me" and "many of my clients." You can decide about you.)


3. You to us. I function as an accountability partner to most of my clients. Here's how it works "it may be something you want. It's someone to help you keep your focus, keep the successes coming, even when you're feeling distracted. Your accountability partner just helps you be sure that you don't blow off the issues which are inconvenient, and important. I don't want to suggest that a business coach is a dominatrix for the businessman or businesswoman. Accountability is not a pain-based game with whips and chains. But, from my own experience, I have found is that as a coachee I absolutely need the help of my coach to get all the things done that I want to do. And my clients use me to help them get past the "I dowanna, you can't make me!" voice of resistance that can imperil the success of a small business. One client suggests that that voice sounds very much like an angry seven-year-old!


Here's how Aided Accountability works. You promise and publish accomplishments or goals. These can be short (one-week) and long (2 months and 12 months) accomplishments. If you don't accomplish every promise, we review it jointly to see how we can make it happen soon - next week, next cycle, next year. There isn't an implication of punishment or wrong-doing here you can be proud to keep the promises you make, and when you neglect them (whatever the reason) you're more highly motivated to complete them in the next term. You might see it as ironic that small business ownership includes being accountable to yourself, that being fully accountable is something many of us avoid, and that being accountable to yourself alone is probably one of the most difficult tasks there is. Personally, it's a place where I welcome help and I pay my coach gladly for that help. The moel I propose in the previous paragraph is one that I've followed for several years. If you think that you could use some help in your own accountability, try me.


Craig Jennings

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Article Tags: accountability, promises, successful entrepreneurs



Related Forum Posts
Success Strategies - How to get the results you want now? Success Strategies and Action Steps I have used are: The Power of Choice Where you are at this present moment, is exactly perfect from the choices you have made. If you want to be somewhere else, you have to decide clearly what that is (your goal/outcome) and create action steps to achieve this. The Power of Focus The book "The Power of Focus" by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen and Les Hewitt, is one of my treasures in my Entrepreneur Library. If you focus on what you want versus what you do not want, your conscious and sub-conscious mind will direct attention to this. The movie, What the Bleep, Down the Rabbit Hole, explains this in detail about quantum physics and what we create in our lives. The Power of Commitment This is not about commitment to others. The first step is the commitment, your word, you make to yourself. Accountability and responsibility are additional success strategies and ingredients to creating the success, defined by you, that you want. The commitment to others reflects your integrity, your word and the team you work with. Co-workers, clients, yoru family, friends and community. My Success Acronyn in Success Breakthroughs(c) is: S pecific & self-directed U nlimited opportunities & possibilities C reate powerful outcomes C onsistent measureable results E xperience pwoerful transformation S olution and action-oriented S uccessful habits and outcomes Break Through to Powerful LIfestyle & Performance Choices Moira


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