From the course: Time Management Tips

Increasing follow-through by making yourself accountable

From the course: Time Management Tips

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Increasing follow-through by making yourself accountable

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- When I speak to audiences about time management, I often get asked a question like this. Dave, I've heard so many different training programs. I've read lots of books. I've learned so much about time management, but I fail to follow through, it doesn't stick. Why does that happen and what can I do about it? Most often I find that a failure to follow through is the result of a lack of accountability. Now I need to be specific about how I define accountability. I believe accountability is reporting to and getting training from a third party. You can be personally responsible, but accountability requires someone else. Someone else continually following up with you, helps increase your follow through and longevity in anything that you're trying to learn. So, how do we go about making that happen. First of all, make a commitment to the concept of accountability. Recognize that while you can make some improvement by yourself, you can improve much faster with the help of a third party. Second, let's consider some of the options to get that third party accountability. First of all, you could reach out to a friend and say, hey, I'm trying to lose weight. Can you check in with me on a regular basis about it? Or perhaps you find a mentor. A mentor is someone who's already had success in the thing that you're trying to do. For instance, they've run a marathon before and you ask them to help you. The next option, and this works more in a career sense, is a manager. Perhaps you want to grow and improve in your knowledge in the workplace. And so you go to your manager and say, can you check in with me on a regular basis, or can you help me with this? And the last option is a professional coach. This is someone who is trained and skilled in the art of helping you grow in a particular area, and it does require an investment. Next, you want to pick one and test it. Just give it a try. Work with one friend or work with one mentor for about three months. Give it a try for a quarter. Then ask yourself the question, did this person speak to you? Did they help you in a way that you responded to? Everyone's a little bit different, and everyone has a different style. I'm a business coach, yet I recognize my style works well for some people and not as well for others. And that leads to number four, adjust accountability over time. Perhaps you need to change the way in which you're reporting or meeting. Maybe in the beginning, you need to meet in person, face to face, once per week, but over time, you could transition to occasionally just checking in via email. Continually retool and rework how you have that accountability relationship. I believe accountability is the key to continued growth. The key is testing it out, and finding out what works best for you.

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