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Setting Up an Effective
Accountability Partnership & Process
by Kathy Paauw

I have been working with my accountability partner since fall 2008, and the process I’m sharing below makes a huge difference in what I accomplish. Both my partner and I are committed to the process and we are consistent with playing the Happy-Healthy-Wealthy Game together.That's what makes it work!

I propose three components to your support structure:

1. A daily check-in via email with your accountability partner, Monday - Friday. I will outline how that works below.
2. Begin your accountability partnership by completing the goals worksheet and sharing it with your partner.
3. Use The Daily 8 Scorecard and the Road Map to Success (modify if you are already a Senior Manager) and share your results with your accountability partner at the end of each week.

Accountability Process

Here's an outline of how the accountability process works. First, please note that I am setting three kinds of intentions daily -- happy, healthy and wealthy goals. This is to provide balance in my life -- a very important part of success. (Why strive for wealth if we are not happy and healthy in the process?) You determine what will make you happy, healthy and wealthy, however you define each of those.

In order for this to work, you need to commit to e-mailing each other each night for the next day. My accountability partner and I do this Monday-Friday. (On Sunday night I report what happened Friday -- done or not done -- and what my intentions are for Monday.)

Here's a sample of an email I sent to my accountability partner:

SUBJECT: KP 1/7/09 Goals

BODY OF EMAIL (keep it short):

1/6/09 Report :

Happy: Dinner with niece - done
Healthy: Workout with Personal Trainer - done
Wealthy: Show up for 2 mentoring calls, 2 client coaching calls - done
Bonus: Call Larry and Rachael - prospect follow up- not done
Daily 8 Goal :  9/8 (means that I earned 9 points and had a goal of 8)

Prospect Contact: 4

Distributor Contact: 3

Grateful for: Phone meeting with Ryan and Clinton and having the opportunity to work with them; cell phones that make it easy to stay connected when Doug is traveling.

1/7/09 Goals:
Happy: Get nails done while calling to catch up with my friend Kathy
Healthy: Treadmill for 45 minutes
Wealthy: Half day planning session to finalize 90-day plan for first quarter, follow up withSOC prospects: Grant, Larry, Rachel
Bonus: Research on how to form an LLC
Daily 8 Goal: 7/8

Prospect Contact: Jennifer, Joe, Tim

Distributor Contact: Cathy, Carol, John, Mastermind group

Tips to Ensure a Successful Partnership :

• If you really want to play a big game, commit to a Walk with God at 3 AM if you do not honor your commitments to yourself. That's right...you set your alarm for 3 AM and go for a walk and have a chat with God about what's getting in the way of you honoring your commitments for anything you wrote NOT DONE next to that day. If you decide to do this, be 100% honest with yourself. If you cheat, you are only cheating yourself. (Trust me, you will get really good at keeping your commitments to yourself, as it is not much fun to do this often!)

• Selection of accountability partner: This should NOT be someone you are super close to, like a spouse. Your partner needs to be someone who will call you on things if you are not keeping your commitments to yourself, but not be judgmental or punishing in their approach. There's NO room for judgment here, as that will shut your partner down.

• I am committing to myself that if I do nothing else, I will do these things. Do not identify a long list of intentions in each category, as that will sabotage your efforts. Occasionally I have more than one thing for each category, but most of the time I limit it to ONE activity that is important to me in the areas of happiness, health, and wealth.

• Note that under my 1/6/09 "wealthy" goal, I said "show up for calls" rather than "talk with". That is because I have no control over whether or not the other person will be available to speak with me, even if we have an appointment. (I do not want to do a Walk with God if I showed up and they did not.) Be sure you set your goals or intentions in a way that you have control over whether or not you follow through with your part of it.

• I have also added goals for the number of prospects and distributors I connect with daily. I used to have a goal of connecting with at least one of each, but I discovered that I did better with my intentions when I put in specific names of people I intended to connect with the next day. So you will see that reflected in my example above.

• This is not a place to list reasons or excuses, to shame, blame, or justify. If you do not follow through, simply write NOT DONE. If you choose to commit to the Walk with God, share with your accountability partner if you did it or not.

• This is a WHOLE LIFE document, not just aboutbuilding your SOC business. So if you have other important goals, they should be listed here. Some of you have jobs or other businesses, and it is fine for you to include goals for that in the mix.

• For me, the Bonus does not count in the Walk with God. If I do not do my bonus activity, it is okay. I am saying that I would like to do it, but it is not a commitment like the happy, healthy, wealthy intentions are. Sometimes I get my bonus activity done and pat myself on the back for doing extra, and sometimes I do not, and I am okay with that.

• For the Daily 8 goals, I am reporting the actual number of points and the goal.  The first part of the fraction is the actual, and the second part is the goal.  I may be under, over, or right on target, and this shows my outcome vs my intention. I have also added two other things to this report, because I have an intention to make at least one contact with a distributor on my team and one contact with a prospect each weekday. By reporting the number to my accountability partner, it helps me keep my focus on this.

• Because I want to focus on gratitude more, I have added the Grateful For and I choose to list at least one thing I am grateful for every day.

• My email to my partner also contains my 30-day and 90-day goals at the bottom.This gives me anopportunity to look at my goals daily and also reminds my partner what my bigger goals are so she can better support me and ask me about some things if I am not setting daily intentions that hit the mark. (I suggest that you block out NOW on your calendar a half day every 30 days to work on your monthly planning and a full day every 90 days to create a quarterly plan.)

• To make this easy, I just hit the forward button every day, add DONE or NOT DONE to the goals listed for the day before, list what I am grateful for, and add the next day's goals before sending it off.

The two of you can decide if you want to connect by phone or not. I suggest that you have an initial conversation ASAP to discuss how you want to structure your relationship and to share whatever information you choose to share with each other personally and professionally.

I have a call twice a week with my partner to talk about what is working, what is not, and how we can support each other. If you just want to do the email thing, that's fine, too. Decide what will best support you. If one of you does not receive an email, be sure that you email or call to check in and let them know that you missed receiving it.

This process will only work if you are CONSISTENT and if you keep it SHORT & SIMPLE so it does not take over your life.

Even if your accountability partner does not read what you sent, the power is in writing down and sending your intentions. This is true for a few reasons:

1. It facilitates you declaring your goals before the start of the day so you are clear about what to do.
2. By telling someone else your intentions and then reporting whether or not you did what you said you'd do, you are much more likely to follow through.
3. If you agree to the Walk with God, this alone is enough of a reason to follow through with your written commitments to yourself. This only works if you are 100% honest with yourself and you don't weasel out on your commitments by making excuses about why you did not do something. There are very few exceptions. For example, if I did not exercise because I got the flu, I would not choose to set my alarm for 3 AM for a Walk with God, and I would not choose to exercise if my body would benefit more from getting rest. The key is to be HONEST with yourself and not make excuses.

Finally, once a week, ask yourself these questions that will help you evaluate your activities (including how you are "being", not just what you are "doing") to see how your habits and behaviors are working for you:

• What do I want to START?
• What do I want to STOP?
• What do I want to CONTINUE? 

Click here to review the Nine Environments of You

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Have Fun!