How do accountability groups hold you accountable?

   The short answer is that they don’t; you have to hold yourself accountable first. Accountability groups help its members hold themselves accountable. It’s important to know what the group can help you with. You need to know how to utilize the power of such a group.  The group can...


... offer support and comradeship during a difficult time
If you are a small business owner who doesn’t like sales or a job seeker looking for the next opportunity you are basically on your own. If you succeed or fail you have no one to answer to, except yourself. Frankly this is lonely.  It is difficult to do sales or a job search and experience rejection with no support system. If you have a group who is going through the same kind of experiences you feel less alone. And you can pump one another up from time to time. While you are still on your own, you not all alone.

... clarify your goals and help you to stay focused
When you are on your own as either a job seeker or as an entrepreneur you are alone. If you were working in a job with peers and colleagues around, you can bounce ideas off people. As a single force in the world, having a group to bounce ideas off of can help in qualifying and quantifying your goals. With an accountability group to check in with, a conflicting goal or action can be identified and put into check; allowing you to remain focused on key goals and actions. If a goal is too big and requires a mini goals to be identified a group can point this out to you.

... provide some motivation to meet goals
Many of us are too easy on ourselves and accept our own rationalizations without question. The accountability group is a place to announce your goals and then report your status. Telling someone makes the goal real. Putting a date to a goal gives it a sense of urgency. When you’ve communicated the goal with a date to a group you’re more motivated to make the goal happen. Most of us hate to tell someone that we didn’t do what we said we would do. Also when you don’t feel like doing what you need to, having a group to report to gives you a proper kick to do it anyway.

   With the support and backing of a group of people who have made a commitment to aid in each other’s success by holding one another accountability -- you can achieve you sales or job seeking goals. The commitment is key. Each member needs to commit to personal responsibility, to attend meetings regularly, to ask questions of the other group members--even tough questions, and to expect one another to do the same for you and the group.