We’ve been busy planning 2020, which means that 2019 is pretty much locked down.

The kids are already on countdown to April for our annual family trip to Dubai.  And Jacki’s on countdown too; she’s set herself a target of getting ‘beach ready’.

In just three weeks, she’s already seeing results; it’s easy to see why and it has nothing to do with just eating bowls of Cauliflower Rice.

• She’s recruited a personal trainer who comes to the house at a set time each week.
• They sat down in January to discuss goals and set realistic targets to aim for and measure twice a week.
• Jacki even has to write down everything she eats and drinks and submit a daily dairy.

It’s working well (and she’s loving it) because she’s got a dedicated go-to expert who she’s accountable to.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s been a few times she’s slipped off the bandwagon.  But rather than get all disheartened about it, they spoke about what happened, why it happened, and then moved on because she now knows the consequences.

And the same goes for your business.

Who do YOU hold yourself accountable to?

Yes, we all have that image of springing out of bed at 6am every morning to crack on with our day, unrestricted by the rigid ‘corporate world’ thanks to us being the owner.  BUT…

If you miss target…

How do you react?  Do you know why you missed target?  Who was responsible?  Do you even have targets and are they realistic?

If mistakes are made by you, or by others…

How are these managed? Do you have a process for learning from these?

Does anyone even care about performance?  Do you have a clear culture of accountability?

Whilst you can assign your staff (and yourself) a variety of responsibilities, whether or not they’re accountable depends on their character and the working environment.  They may have the necessary skills to undertake these tasks but may not have the will or attitude.  When someone refuses to be accountable, they’ll always be blaming someone else for failure.

This week have a good think about who you’re accountable to, if it’s working and why.  Plus, how you manage accountability and responsibility with your teams in your business.

PS we always ask our clients to rate our calls/meetings with us.  Came across these – very topical to share a few of them with you today to show the different ways accountability helps:

“Martin keeps me focussed. He’s acting as the key piece of our jigsaw just now between us and accountants to provide some really useful help.”

“Making sure I am staying on track and re-setting each day. Also, I find the support helpful to see what’s really going on – sometimes what I think isn’t what it really is.”

“Being held accountable to tasks and having an intelligent and experienced mentor to respond to queries and be a constructive critic.”