Accountability, the very word can strike terror in the hearts of grown men and women, if it is about holding themselves accountable. Holding others accountable is different, that’s easy.

Why is that?

I believe that self-accountability is one of the major reasons why so many business owners will not do a business plan. And if they do a business plan, they show it to no one. Self-accountability is one of the major reasons more business owners do not participate in support groups.

Again, why?

Having something on paper and in the public domain, so to speak, holds them to it, makes them accountable. It’s the old adage “Do as I say, not as I do”. We as business owners need to get over this. In a support group your goals and objectives, both long and short term, are fully known to one and all in the group.

So why is this a big problem, is it fear of failure, is it fear of weakness, is it fear of embarrassment?

Let’s take these one at a time.

Fear of failure – as a business coach or consultant and as a business owner, I fail every day, I don’t get all of my to dos done. I don’t make that phone call. I don’t do all the follow ups I should. I don’t do all the prospecting I should. Does this make me a failure, no!

Does this equal failure, no! It simply means that what I tried on that day in those circumstances, didn’t work. Learn from it and move on. It makes me human. I hate to quote pop culture, but I will, as Rocky Balboa said, “Its not about how hard you can hit, it’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward, that’s where winning comes from”. Keep moving forward.

Fear of showing weakness – just because you don’t accomplish everything you wish to accomplish at any given time is not necessarily the end of the world, get over it. Move on, learn from it and become better for it.

Fear of embarrassment – I believe this is a biggie; everyone thinks they are the only one who doesn’t do 100% of what they say they will. Yet in all the mentoring groups I facilitate, it is a rare time indeed when some one does 100% of their goals and objectives. I would say it is far less than 5% of the time. That means that more than 19 out 20 times we didn’t do what we said we would.

So what! Life happens and business happens – usually at the speed of light, there too many uncontrollable events that impact us.

Does this mean we shouldn’t hold ourselves accountable? No, be accountable, to yourself, to you staff, to your peers – but lighten up. Set goals, hold yourself accountable, investigate what prevented you from accomplishing your goals and learn from it, the move on.

If you don’t hold yourself accountable how can you hold others accountable?