You need someone to hold you accountable for producing results. That someone needs to be on your back night and day, asking the questions that drive you to reach your goals and to do the best work you are capable of. That someone needs be a relentless taskmaster, reminding you to stay focused on what’s really important.
The “someone” that should be holding you accountable is you.
Accountability for Asking and Answering Tough Questions
There is much power in great questions. Asking the tough questions focus your attention on what is really important. The toughest questions make you consider what’s important and what must be traded off to obtain it. (Why wait until the end of the post to provide some prompts?)
What are the questions should you be asking yourself right now?
What are the questions that, if you answered them in the positive, would indicate that you are taking the right actions and making progress on your goals?
What are the questions that, if you were to answer them in the negative, would indicate that your future results aren’t going to be what you need to them to be?
What questions do you need to ask to ensure that that you are getting the outcomes that you want—or that you need?
Here are some ideas.
What beliefs and biases do I have that may no longer be serving me? What do the people who are producing the results I want to produce believe about this subject?
What actions do I need to take to improve my results in this area? (Need a hint as to areas you might ask about here? How about your prospecting results? How about the health of your pipeline? How about your overall happiness and quality of life?)
What are the outcomes that I really need to produce to be successful? To be happy?
You can come up with dozens of more questions. Taking the time to write the questions and to write your answers can help focus your attention and energy where it can produce results. It can clarify your thinking. And, if you take this exercise seriously, if you let it, it can inspire you to take action.
Accountability for Taking Disciplined Actions
Asking the tough questions isn’t ever enough. It is darn helpful to think through what’s important, and you absolutely must hold yourself accountable for doing the thinking. Great ideas and effective plans are the results of having done the thinking. Better results are found through the combination of both disciplined thinking and disciplined action.
No one else should ever have to hold you accountable for doing what you know you need to do. Ultimately, the person that you are going to answer to when it comes to your successes, your failures, and your life is you. You have to decide what is important to you and act on it—or not act on it. In the end you are going to have to be happy with the decisions you made and the actions that you took around those decision.
The trick is to hold yourself accountable now, instead of living with, or later facing, regrets.
It’s no one else’s job to hold you accountable. No one else is responsible for your results or for the results of your life. Don’t wait for someone else to tell you what they want you to be accountable for; hold yourself accountable to deciding what actions you need to take in order to succeed and for taking those actions.
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