In my last newsletter, I asked you whether or not you engaged accountability partners. Thank you to all who took the time to complete the survey. Interestingly, the results were split with slightly more of you having accountability partners than not.

For those who did not have accountability partners, it wasn’t because you didn’t see the value in it. Rather, the two most common responses were that you didn’t know whom to ask and you weren’t sure what to ask of them.

Fortunately, your counterparts (those who responded that they did have accountability partners) offered some insights that may prove helpful. I’ve combined their responses with my …. 

1. Don’t overthink it – this can be a simple as saying to a peer, “I have a presentation I need to give next week. Would you mind if we met for a half an hour on Friday so that I could run through it with you and get your feedback?” In this way, you are giving yourself a deadline of getting the presentation done by Friday and you are letting them know that you’re looking for their insights to help you prepare properly.
2. Be specific – as you saw in the example above, the clearer you can be in explaining to the individual what you need from them, the easier it is for them to determine whether they are able to commit to you or not. There is a big difference between “can we spend a half hour on Friday?” and “can you help me get ready for the presentation?” My ideas might be significantly different from the help you are actually seeking. If you asked me the second question, I might be wondering if you need me to help you pull together the content, to help create the slides, to review everything.
3. Ask the person with the expertise – just as you would ask a doctor for medical advice, a mechanic to look at an issue with your vehicle, you want to identify the person who has the skills that you need. Using the example above, perhaps the reason that you selected this particular peer to give you feedback on the presentation is because they have successfully presented to this same audience several times before. They know what this group of people will be looking for and the types of questions they will ask.
4. Leverage technology – technology can be a great accountability partner. We use it all the time. Our calendar sends us notifications of meetings. We can also use it to track our tasks and help us timebox. Continuing with the example above, you could create a list of tasks that need to be accomplished in order to complete the presentation, such as doing research, compiling data, building the slides, etc. You could then create blocks on your calendar to complete each of these tasks.

I’d love to hear from you. Shoot me an email and let me know,

• If you’ve not engaged an accountability partner, do these insights help you think about how you might start?
• For those of you who have had accountability partners, tell me some of the ways that this relationship helped you?
• For those of you who are accountability partners, why do you choose to accept that role?