An accountability partner can provide constructive feedback, fresh perspective, guidance and inspiration to help you succeed and reach your goals.
In this article, you’ll learn the six ways an accountability partner can make you more successful. You’ll also get tips on ways to identify and approach an accountability partner.
Do you ever feel like you write down goals, but get derailed three weeks later?
Working with an accountability partner means that you need to take responsibility for your actions and your decisions. You need to commit to your goals and your accountability partner will be there to make sure you follow through with your actions.
In order to be successful with any goal, there has to be a willingness on your part to commit to own your actions and habits.
Check out this free goal-setting worksheet that will help you set specific goals that you and your accountability partner can review together.
These are the six ways an accountability partner helps you succeed:
1. Uncovers blind spots
An accountability partner sees the whole picture. There are character traits, tendencies or bad habits that could be derailing your efforts.
Your accountability partner helps identify roadblocks, redirects you if you get on the wrong path and keeps you on track.
This can include addressing things you’re avoiding or lying to yourself about—an accountability partner uncovers these blinds spots.
2. Keeps you honest
An accountability partner makes you take responsibility for your actions.
When you have to own your mistakes and report back that you didn’t complete what you said you would, it’s hard to admit without feeling some shame or guilt. Making excuses starts to sound tacky and you don’t want to waste someone’s time.
Having an accountability partner means that you’ll feel committed to completing what you said you would so you don’t disappoint yourself or waste the time of your accountability partner.
3. Acts as your sounding board
Your accountability partner may offer advice, but sometimes the best thing they can do for you is listen. They can listen to your hopes and dreams, struggles and setbacks.
Your accountability partner may not have all of the solutions for you—and they’re certainly not your therapist—but they can serve as a sounding board for your ideas and goals. They can redirect you and keep you on track.
By acting as a sounding board, your accountability partner can help you remember why you began your journey. If you have some setbacks, your accountability partner will help you recover quickly and keep you moving forward.
4. Keeps you motivated
Take a look at the list of reasons why you set out to accomplish your goal and use it as a reference whenever you’re feeling unmotivated or lost.
Your accountability partner will remind you of the positive things that will happen when you reach your goal and why you set out to accomplish this goal in the first place.
Part of the experience of reaching your goal is sharing the positive outcomes and wins with someone else.
5. Keeps you focused
Break down your big picture goal into small-actionable steps that get you to where you want to be. Your accountability partner is focused on your success and the way to do that is to help keep you on track with your tasks and actions.
This alone can significantly increase your chances of success because you have to be honest and report back to a person on your actions and progress. This person helps to keep you honest and on track.
You may feel overwhelmed with everything you need to do, but taking small-consistent action will get you results and keep you motivated as well.
Your accountability partner can help you modify your behaviors and help you track your progress every week. If you’re doing things that are distracting you from your goal, your accountability partner will help you shift your priorities back to this goal.
6. Challenges you
You want an accountability partner that challenges you, but not one that’s going to be condescending or judgmental when have a bad day or an unproductive week.
It’s important to communicate with your accountability partner about how you’d like to be challenged. Perhaps that means that you text your accountability partner a photo of your task or progress. Or it could mean that this person holds you accountable to an action that you must complete 3x’s a week.
Feeling challenged and outside of your comfort zone is probably a good sign that you’re growing, evolving and making progress to a new version of you or reaching your goal.
What goal are you trying to accomplish and how can an accountability partner help you?
How to Identify and Choose Your Accountability Partner
Find someone who likes to help others:
Your accountability partner can be professional acquaintance, a good friend, a co-worker, a relative, or a spouse or partner.
It’s best to seek someone who’s an acquaintance because a family or close friend may give you more cautious advice and keep you in a “safe space” which could stand in the way of your growth. They may know you too well and may be too kind with their feedback and not want to hurt your feelings or they may be more judgemental, questioning your goals and actions, rather than being supportive and positive.
Seek out a person who can be candid, who can listen to you and what you need, and can provide helpful ideas.
Qualities of a good accountability partner:
Choose an accountability partner who is smart, caring and organized. You’ll be sharing hopes, struggles and triumphs with this person.
You want someone who’s in your corner, acting as your partner-in-crime and providing you with positive peer-pressure.
It’s helpful if your accountability has faced similar struggles and has successfully come out the other side because they can be a great resource for you. It’s also OK if your accountability partnership is reciprocal, meaning the two of are going through the same process together.
Approach your accountability partner:
Reach out to your potential accountability partner and ask them if they’d be interested in holding you accountable for your goal.
Let them know what you want to accomplish, have them review (and approve/confirm/verify) the the steps you need to take to reach your goal, and how they can help you stay on track.
Be sure you communicate how often you’d like to be in touch with them. Perhaps it’s a text message a few times a week, a 15-minute phone call once a week, or an in-person meeting every other week. Let them know how frequently you’d like to be in touch with him and how.
How to work with your accountability partner
Finally, tell your accountability partner how they can challenge you. This can include pushing you outside of your comfort zone, helping you learn new ideas or approaches along the way and enabling you think outside the box.
You should also explain consequences for not following through. If there aren’t any consequences, there’s not much to be held accountable to. Identify consequences for your actions (or non-actions) and ways your accountability can enforce these consequences onto you.
You should have regular check-ins with your accountability and it should be a fixed time at the same time each week. Your communication should have a strong foundation around positive reinforcement and mutual respect.
Check in with each other until you reach your goal and stay in touch even after you accomplish your goal to make sure you stay on track.
Start crushing your goals
Try out the accountability partnership for a few weeks and see how things are going. If the communication, accountability or dynamic isn’t working out after 3-4 weeks, it’s OK to part ways and seek out another accountability partner.
Don’t let your goals and dreams die on the vine.
Write them down and get started on them today!
Download this accountability partner checklist stay on track and succeed.
