NextGen Know-How: An unconventional way to increase personal accountability & results

While facilitating a leadership session focused on personal and professional success habits a few months ago, I shared that one of the most important elements of success in life is to take action. Having a vision, goals, and intentions are important, but often the gap of where you are and where you want to be comes down to taking consistent action on your goals and plans.

During an exercise I was leading the group through around cleaning up incomplete tasks in your life, I admitted that I have been putting off executing our family trust for years. Over the past seven years, I have updated and printed the trust three times, but never had it notarized. I committed to the group that I would take action and complete the trust. But then something happened that spurred me into action. One of the participants raised his hand and said he also wanted to update his will, and that we could be accountability partners. We committed to completing these actions by the end of May, and that we would check in then. And guess what happened? I finally executed the trust! Having an accountability partner who emailed me to check in made all the difference (thanks, Perry!). This is an excellent strategy we can use both personally and professionally. For harder, time consuming, or challenging tasks and projects that you tend to procrastinate on, committing to someone else your plan for action can give you the extra accountability you need to follow through.

This is one area leaders often struggle with—putting off the important for the urgent, and spending their days reacting to interruptions and issues rather than intentionally scheduling and focusing on their priorities. It’s human nature to focus on what’s easy and avoid tasks that are harder, longer, or unpleasant. Our brain gets a hit of dopamine when we accomplish something, which is why checking small things off your list makes you feel good (I sometimes add something to my list that I’ve already done, just to check it off!), even if it’s not contributing to your most important result areas. Those small activities make us feel like we are getting a lot done, but often we aren’t working on the right things.

 

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