Creating Tomorrow

 Dear Friends,

Over on one of my favorite sites, WebWorkerDaily, Amber Riviere wrote an article* outlining what she has gained from working for the last three (!) years with her accountability partner.

Because one of my main functions as a coach is the rôle I play as my clients’ “accountability partner”, I was not at the least surprised by Amber’s list:

1. More Focus: Working with an accountability partner shifts your attention away from your varied lists of individual tasks and projects to the bigger picture of your overall business or career objectives. Doing this allows you to set a benchmark against which you can now measure each of the ideas that pop into your mind or the projects you undertake. Once you decided that an idea or project pays into your achieving your goal, you are even more motivated to add that particular piece (i.e. that specific completed task or project) to your professional puzzle.

2. Staying the Course: Especially when you are self-employed (but certainly not only then), you feel a huge amount of pressure to succeed. Success = survival! The urgency you feel, however, may make you too quick to change strategies and tactics without giving any one plan the opportunity it deserves to actually bear fruit. Working with your accountability partner forces you to question your impulse to project-hop. It doesn’t mean you will be less flexible or feel obligated to follow through on plans that prove insufficient. It does mean, however, that you will keep not only your short-, but also your mid-, and long-term objectives in mind.

3. More Honesty: Euphoria or desperation can quickly distort how you view a particular situation, no matter what you have defined as your immediate career goals or overall business objectives. By sharing your dreams and visions with your accountability partner, you give them permission to call you on the b.s. you tell yourself when positive or negative emotions threaten to take control. Your accountability partner can literally hold up an undistorted mirror of your own dreams and visions at times when your own inner “eyesight” has become foggy.

4. Greater Progress in Less Time: Having a regular appointment to check in with your accountability partner paces the progress you make as you work towards your deadlines and goals. Your appointments keep you tuned into your tasks and milestones. What was I expecting to accomplish this week? What did I get done? Where did I have to change my plans - and why? Working together with an accountability partner also keeps you in tuned with how one completed project or task feeds into another to move you forward towards your goal.

5. Concentration of Results: Working with accountability partner helps your transition from “action-itis” to result-driven activity. It’s not about how busy you seem, it’s about what you actually get done - today; next week; next month - and how what you actually do feeds into your overall objective.

6. Fewer Ruts: Having someone to talk to about mental blocks or ruts you experience helps you remain solution-focused. Instead of listening to you endlessly complain about what’s wrong with a situation, your accountability partner challenges you to use that energy to see the silver lining of possible results to your dilemma that are well within your reach.

7. Increased Balance: Whether you are driven by career objectives or entrepreneurial visions, it’s important to maintain balance in your life. By working closely with an accountability partner, you not only receive encouragement and support to tackle the big projects and goals that will lead you to success, you are also reminded how important it is to pay attention to the other aspects of your life. It’s precisely the energy and inspiration you receive in those other sectors that can fuel and empower you in your business or career.

All of the above-mentioned benefits of working with an accountability partner - whether in the form of a professional coach, a mentor, or simply a good business friend or colleague - support you in consolidating your strengths, experience and talents, and investing them with more focus and clarity into your business or career.

They can make all the different between chasing your proverbial professional tail, and moving at a steady pace, with great ideas and sensible benchmarks towards your business or career goals.

 Trina

P.S. Click to read Amber’s follow-up article called: “10 Tips For a Better Accountability Partnership”

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(*Source: http://tinyurl.com/ylkmhlc)