It is not unusual that as a startup founder or a small business owner, you have very little free time, if at all. As you’re working on scaling and growing your business, you keep adding tasks to your plate that may already be overflowing. In case you haven’t tried accountability coaching, now may be the time to consider it because the benefits of accountability coaching for business owners are numerous.
A study done in the US showed that people are 65% more likely to reach their goals if they’ve committed to someone that they will do it and 95% more likely to accomplish their goals if they have a specific accountability appointment with the person they’ve committed to. Not sure about you, but I think those are pretty high numbers to just pass the opportunity.
What Is Business Accountability Coaching?
As the CEO, the only person to hold you accountable is you. And whether you are struggling with your new-found freedom, using ineffective productivity habits, or expecting too much from yourself, business accountability coaching can provide a layer of responsibility with a side of actionable strategy to get you unstuck.
Windy Lawson
I feel like this quote sums it up quite nicely. Having an accountability coach means that you have someone you’ve committed to when it comes to your goals, plans, etc. You’re the one who dictates the content, but the coach is the one who helps you get where you want to go by checking in, encouraging, and motivating you to follow through. The coach holds you accountable to your actions so that you and your business keep moving forward.
What are the Benefits of Accountability Coaching for Business Owners?
Having worked with several business owners so far, I can freely say that the biggest benefit really is having an additional pair of eyes and ears for your business ideas and plans. Of course, you can talk to your coworkers, family or friends about your business growth, but not all of them can be objective and they definitely don’t have the tools an accountability coach does to help you move forward.
Here are some benefits of accountability coaching for startup founders and small business owners that I find most useful. However, there are many more that we could add to the list.
Identify Problem Areas
An accountability coach helps you identify problem areas in your business. When you start working with an accountability coach, they look at your business with you: strengths, weaknesses, areas for improvement and opportunities for growth. The coach helps you analyze your business and identify which areas need immediate attention and where change would be most beneficial. In addition, they know when and what questions to ask to get the most out of you and the situation at hand.
Set and Achieve Goals
One of the first things you’ll do with your accountability coach is to set goals. They can help you set clear and measurable goals and then nudge you in the right direction to reach those goals. The benefit of working with a coach on your goals is that they’ve done it so many times already with different clients so they can provide a unique perspective which may turn out to be very beneficial.
Avoid Procrastination
Running a business is not a piece of cake. It takes a lot of time, energy and effort to keep things going. More often than not, business owners are juggling much more than what they truly can do. This can be overwhelming and lead you to postpone some activities because you just don’t know what to start with. An accountability coach will help you avoid procrastination or reduce it to a minimum. That means that you’ll be able to check items off your list and add new tasks to your schedule without feeling overwhelmed and stressed out.
Delegate Appropriately
This benefit is connected to procrastination as is the one to come. Many business owners started out as solopreneurs so you got used to doing it all by yourself. Yet, the more your business grows and the more people get on board, the more you’ll be able to assign tasks related to their job descriptions and focus on the tasks that are most important for you.
Sadly, many founders and CEOs don’t learn to delegate soon enough and they end up micromanaging their teams, thus adding more tasks to their to-do lists and preventing the team members from learning and growing. If you want to get better at delegating tasks, check out the article I’ve written on how to delegate tasks effectively.
So, how can an accountability coach help with delegating tasks? It’s very easy, really. As you set goals and make action plans with your coach for both yourself and your business, you’ll talk about prioritizing tasks. During this process, the coach will ask questions and guide you to assign the tasks to yourself that you’d provide most value to; everything else will have to be delegated. The longer you work with the coach, the easier it will be and you’ll start doing this on your own soon enough.
Manage Your Time Well
As I’ve already mentioned, time management is closely related to procrastination and delegation. Managing your time well means that you’re establishing a good balance between various activities and don’t feel overwhelmed or stressed out. An accountability coach tracks your progress continuously and that alone requires you to complete your tasks on time. Since you’re accountable to someone for something, you’re more likely to get things done, thus learning to manage your time better to do it all in due time.
Get Clarity and Direction
An accountability coach works with you on all aspects of your business. S/he looks at the bigger picture and helps you stay focused on goals and tasks that matter the most and provide the most value to your business.
An accountability coach helps identify the most important short, medium, and long term goals; where and how much energy and focus to apply to get you in the important space of traction and momentum.
Jatinder Palaha
Develop Your Skills
Finally, an accountability coach not only helps you grow and scale your business but also grow and improve your own skills. We have already mentioned some of them in this article when talking about the benefits of coaching but there are many more skills that you will develop as you work with your coach.
Last but not least, just having a familiar face, someone to talk to that’s not family or friends, a soundboard to your ideas is of great importance and helps you as a business owner. You get all this and more from an accountability coach.
Ready to Try It Out?
Now that you know that you don’t have to do it all alone, take some time and think about how beneficial working with an accountability coach would be for you. Please, keep in mind that you can always start with an accountability partner, but if you want someone with tools, techniques and experience in working with CEOs, founders and business owners, I’d highly recommend hiring an accountability coach.
If you have any questions about how to find an accountability coach and what to look for in a coach, you can check my article on all you need to know about accountability coaching. Or, you can always schedule a chat with me and I’ll be happy to provide more information.
Good luck and have fun scaling your business and improving your own skills along the way.