The Way To Move Your Business Forward: Personal Accountability

Do you wish you had some personal accountability when it comes to running your business? You’re not alone.

For the last 3 years, I’ve hosted a monthly Founding Moms’ Exchange, which is what we call our Meetups. Since I host Exchanges in 2 different locations, I meet entrepreneurs twice a month to talk business. To date, our most successful Founding Moms’ Exchange is our annual “Accountability Partner” Exchange. In a room of twenty members, we partner off with the following assignment:

1. Come up with 2-3 goals you’d like to accomplish in the next 2 months.
2. Write them down on a piece of paper.
3. Trade said paper with your partner.
4. If your partner cannot understand what you wrote, discuss.
5. Exchange contact information and decide on what intervals you will follow-up with each other. Two weeks? Once a month? Set it up and follow up accordingly.

By the end of the Exchange, the room is buzzing with energy. Members feel reinvigorated and reenergized to move forward and meet their goals. It’s pretty much the only Exchange of the year when members come up to me to thank me for organizing the meeting, they are so grateful to have found a positive way to move forward.

To be honest, this Exchange is surprising each and every time we do it. Theoretically, we shouldn’t need personal accountability help up by someone else. We could easily write down goals at home, set dates to check-in on those goals, and meet them. Heck, we could even have iPhone’s beloved Siri set reminders or use the alarm in our calendars. So what is it about having someone else to check in on us? It could be peer pressure. It could be that we respond well to outside, non-electronic influences. It could be the support of another human being — that intangible thing that is connecting to others. It’s the foundation of what we do at The Founding Moms — meet up in real life and help one another out — that helps us all move forward with our businesses. But this particular activity at this particular Exchange(personal accountability) is fascinating — and now obvious to me that it is necessary.

If you don’t have one yet, may you go out and see some personal accountability to help you meet your goals this year.

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