3 Universal Truths About Accountability in Business Development

Let's explore what accountability means in the workplace and what it looks like in good practice.

Chances are that you've seen or even utilized calendars, set reminders, and maybe even asked a friend to hold you accountable for a goal or action. While those tools assist one in their accountability strategy, they're not always effective, and their success relies on three universal truths when it comes to your business development efforts and accountability in the workplace.

1) Accountability Starts With You

You might be thinking, “well, duh, obviously,” but hold on just one second. How many times do we create tasks lists and reminders to meet goals set by others? How often are we meeting seemingly arbitrary hourly minimums established by more senior colleagues, and to what end?

The answers are likely: A lot. A whole lot.

On the surface, those tasks are helpful and necessary to a business's success, but they don't necessarily translate to personal and continued success because they are not uniquely yours. You may work for a firm, but you are your own business and will have a career in your industry that probably exists beyond your current company.

So, what are you doing to reach your own goals?

In order to hold ourselves accountable to meet our goals, we have to set them. It starts with you. Taking ownership of your business development strategy and the work required to reach success in that arena must start from within. Making meaningful goals is much more of a motivation than simply relying on someone else's standard of success.

2) Accountability Isn't Linear

We all know that very few things in life are cut and dry or linear. There are curve balls, missteps, restructuring, and... it never ends. Well, accountability in building success through business development is no different. You can set short-term goals, but know there is always more.

Accountability does not stop simply because you crossed a task off of your to-do list. It is an evolving and growing way of life, or it is in good practice. Start shifting your mindset to look at holding yourself accountable to reaching your goals as just another perennial part of life that you're going to tackle, just like you do everything else that's thrown your way. *cues up "The Song That Never Ends"*

3) Accountability is the Stepping Stone to Success

This may seem obvious, but it's one we often brush aside or roll our eyes at but let's really stop and think about it for a second. To be successful in reaching your goals, you have to be accountable in taking the actions that lead to reaching your goals.

Many of us have an idea of what success looks like to us. We know what we want from our career, we're determined to get there, but we haven't mapped out those little stepping stones along the way that will take us to our goal. One doesn't simply awaken one day with the idea to become an astronaut and suddenly waltz onto the moon.

Every goal, even seemingly small business development goals like meeting clients for coffee or sending a piece of collateral to a prospective client, are all stepping stones to which you have to be accountable. Holding yourself accountable to meeting those little in-between steps will get you to that end-goal, and there's just no other way around it.

Map out where you want to go and the action steps along your path. Knowing it starts with you, is a constant work in progress, and placing importance on those tiny steps on your way to success may just land you on the moon, after all.

If you need help envisioning what your version of walking on the moon looks like and how to reach your desired levels of success, we're here to help and to hold you accountable every step of the way. Reach out to us at info@society54.com to discuss how we can help with planning and accountability. We'll see you in space.