Want to keep your 2012 resolutions?
Add an accountability partner and follow these ground rules:
1. Decide what you will be
accountable for.
2. Connect with your
accountability partner
at least every other week.
3. Congratulate each other
on results.
Gaining ground
Who is holding you to your promises?
By Betsy Buckley
At some point in our lives, and especially at the start of a new year, every one of us has made a resolution we didn’t keep. “I’m going to lose 20 pounds by April 1.” “I’m going to run 10 5Ks before year end.” “I’m going to clear the paper nightmare from my desk.”
We’ve come up with a concept at What Matters that makes it easier to honor commitments and adds momentum to goal achievement. It’s having an accountability partner.
An accountability partner is a person we ask to help hold us to our promises and to whom we give our assurance that we will hold them to theirs.
Qualities to look for in someone you’d choose include:
- Shared values
- Demonstrated willingness to be understanding yet demanding; someone who will challenge you, question you and keep you focused
- Shared interests in personal and professional growth
- Awareness of each other’s tendencies and willingness to call out those that won’t help move things forward (example: over commitment, procrastination)
- Confidentiality
Make the commitment
Accountability partners make four commitments:
- I am going to hold myself accountable
- I am going to hold you accountable
- I am asking that you hold yourself accountable
- I am asking that you hold me accountable
Do the math. You now have four sources of follow-up for your goals, where the typical resolution process has only one (yourself). That doesn’t mean the process is complicated. The best work can be done in less than two hours a month. Just follow these ground rules:
1. Decide: Individually create, then share, the goals to which you’re asking to be held accountable. Share specific commitments in writing with your accountability partner.
2. Connect: You should walk away from your initial meeting with a copy (or access to a copy) of your own commitments and those of your partner and a scheduled time to follow up within a week. From there, agree to “meet” at least every other week. Phone calls or emails work well. Choose the medium that works best for the two of you; the key is to make regular connections.
A few additional tips:
- The focus of your follow-up is to get an outsider’s perspective on any challenges, to “own” your commitments, and to agree on how you will honor them.
- A pattern for a follow-up meeting might be 10 minutes each for a review of your commitments, and another five each on feedback and commitment revisions and/or additions.
- Contact by email, text or IM between calls – to offer encouragement, ask questions, share (short!) readings, etc. – will add value and strengthen the accountability relationship.
3. Congratulate: Make sure each of you is finding ways to measure and consistently share results. It can be as simple as “got it done” to analyzing checkpoints and progress. Offer observations (“It seems as though you are much more focused” or “I appreciate you’re always ready for our calls”) and share what you’ve received from them.
Remember the four commitments and hold one another to them. The benefits of an accountability partner accrue based on the efforts and authenticity you put into it. If you implement an accountability partner in 2012, we’d love to hear how it works for you. Email aware@securian.com
Betsy Buckley is CEO & Chief Rainmaker of What Matters, a consulting firm in St. Paul, Minnesota. Founded in 1997, What Matters helps financial services professionals grow themselves and, in the process, grow their revenue. A graduate of Saint Norbert College, Green Bay, Wisconsin, Buckley has completed graduate work in urban planning and executive education programs at the Wharton School and the University of Southern California. She also has an advanced executive coaching certification from the Hudson Institute. Buckley has demonstrated in her own life that sustainable growth comes from building on your strengths, having the discipline to decide and do what matters and . . . asking plenty of questions. View Betsy’s bio or visit her company’s website, www.what-matters.com.
