From the course: Gretchen Rubin on Creating Great Workplace Habits

Rely on external accountability

From the course: Gretchen Rubin on Creating Great Workplace Habits

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Rely on external accountability

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- For almost everyone, accountability is an enormously powerful strategy and they're all around us. You know, attendance records help get us to school on time when we were little deadlines help us get work done. Accountability is something that can really help people follow through. And if you are an obliger, accountability is crucial for you. You must find ways to build an external accountability for anything that you want to do, whether it's at work or at home in your personal life, whatever it is you want to have that accountability. And there are all kinds of accounts that you can you can ask your boss for accountability. You can work with teams to form accountability. You can hire an executive coach. You know sometimes like when people are trying to do something big and bold, like switch careers you might need to hire somebody or work with somebody to help you stay on track as you complete the many steps that are necessary to switch from one career to another career. And here's the thing that's very important. If someone comes to you in the workplace and says, I need you to hold me accountable for this. Sometimes people don't want to. They're like, no, I trust you. Or you do it in your own time I know it's going to be amazing. No, if somebody asked you for accountability, it's 'cause they figured out they need accountability. If somebody asks for accountability if they want deadlines, if they want supervision if they want to have to check in with you, provide it because they're telling you that that's what they need in order to do a good job. The fact that you might not need accountability doesn't mean that they don't need accountability. And if they're asking for it they've probably learned the hard way that accountability is crucial for them. So with all of these strategies it's very important to just think, well, what am I like? What do I respond to? When have I succeeded in the past? Look at what works for you. Think about how you can use these strategies in order to shape the habits that are really going to allow you to thrive in the workplace.

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