In business, it’s all very well to set goals and have a plan, but how do you ensure you maintain the action required to achieve your vision?
Well, that comes down to holding yourself and your team accountable.
With that in mind, here are the top tips on creating accountability in your business.
Have an accurate and achievable vision
A business vision is the first stage of planning what you hope to achieve for your business. As such, that vision should accurately reflect where you want to go, but most importantly it should be achievable.
While your business mission might aspire to lofty ideals, your vision is all about what you can feasibly do right now and into the immediate future.
Have a plan
Your business plan creates the roadmap to achieve that vision, and includes the steps you need to take along the way.
That plan should be clear, communicated to your team and regularly revised to reflect what you have already achieved and the way your business changes over time.
Set milestones
With your vision and plan as the framework, creating action then involves deciphering the milestones (goals) you need to reach as part of your business’ immediate journey.
These milestones should be clear, and have a deadline, which must be achieved.
Create ownership
Meeting milestones involves assigning responsibility for set tasks – whether that’s the roll out of a new product, achieving a KPI, or delivering an outcome within a set timeframe.
To achieve action, ensure you assign ownership to members of your team. Include clear deliverables, deadlines, and write it down as part of their job description or the project brief.
Have a process and procedure
To achieve consistent action, create processes and procedures that allow for consistency.
These processes and procedures take the guesswork out of completing tasks and also create efficiency within a business that allows for repeatable, scalable success.
Seek mentors
If you are a business leader looking to hold yourself accountable, seek a mentor or multiple mentors who will help you maintain the momentum you require.
These people might be personal mentors, professional mentors, or even business coaches, but their role is to help you define your goals, and help you meet them by being an exterior influence to whom you feel accountable.
Be consistent
Consistent activity creates results over time. In other words it’s about making activity a habit.
Ensure you set yourself up for success by writing down your goal and creating regular timeframes to work towards it – whether that’s a small activity daily, or a larger activity weekly.
Create rewards
Too often we race towards a major goal, without marking the small milestones along the way. But, by rewarding yourself for activities that lead to your ultimate destination, you create a winning culture where you recognise success.
When you create milestones, set rewards that act as an incentive to achieve them.
Be in the moment
As much as you might be working towards a set destination, it’s important to remain in the moment and acknowledge how far you have already come.
Being in the moment allows you to better understand your business, its goals and why they continue to matter.
Manage your time
Time management is critical when it comes to achieving tasks and creating action.
Track your time to see where it’s spent, outsource what you need to and schedule time to work on your goals.
Accountability isn’t easy
Creating accountability is about recognising that your goals are important. However, that’s not to say it’s easy.
Often small day-to-day responsibilities and distractions can get in the way of taking the actions that you want to in order to move your business forward.
That’s why it pays to see accountability as important and look at it as a skill that needs to be mastered.
When you hold yourself and your team accountable for activities that progress your business vision, you are far more likely to get where you want to go.
