Leveraging Others to Succeed – Why Accountability Works

Bill Gates and Warren Buffet… What do they have in common?

For one, they’re both billionaires. Bill Gates is the fourth richest person in the world, and Warren Buffet is the sixth richest person in the world.

But did you know that Bill and Warren are also REALLY good friends?

Warren is one of the most successful investors in the world, and Bill is the founder of the largest software company, Microsoft. It’s a classic example of two people in entirely different fields leveraging each other in order to succeed in life.

Because of their great friendship, Bill Gates knows a lot about financial investments, even though he’s never studied or practised it. On the other hand, Warren knows A LOT about software and technology.

How’s this possible? Because they help one another to be accountable and go after their dreams. That’s how accountability works. In doing that, they learn equally as much (if not more) from each other.

What is Accountability?

Think back to your school days. If we were left with a choice to do or not do our homework, I can bet you that most of us wouldn’t lift a finger.

But knowing that a teacher will check that the homework is done made us a tad more accountable. If nothing else, we were terrified (or at least wary!) of detention and landing in trouble.

Like our teachers, an accountability partner or group will want to see you thrive and succeed. And they will see to it that you do.

A business accountability partner is almost like a mentor but with a caveat. Your relationship with a mentor is typically hierarchical, but an accountability partner is peer-to-peer, making the accountability process work. Having someone you feel can be candid with you, keep you on track, and ultimately make it easier to achieve your goals.

How to Leverage Others in Business

Nearly all of us have these big dreams of what we’d like our future to look like. It might be to be rich, happy, successful, maybe more educated…

We know what it takes to get there, but are we willing to do the work?

That’s where an accountability partner or group comes into play.

When you’re running your own business without someone to hold you accountable, you might give yourself excuses to get out of doing the tough things. The ones that require you to be a risk taker or are very new to you and scare you because you’re comfortable with the status quo. Or perhaps the things that you put off doing because you find them boring.

But when you have someone constantly ‘nagging’ you and keeping up the pressure to do what you’d said you’d do to become successful, life becomes easier. Because when you know you need to answer to someone, you’ll actually strive to do the work.

An accountability partner or group will also help you to put your problems into perspective. You’ll be able to address issues early enough before they become huge. And secondly, an accountability partner will provide you with a second pair of eyes, helping you prevent these instances from occurring again.

Having an accountability group or partner keeps you grounded. It helps you put things into perspective, feel supported and aim high, but it keeps your feet on the ground, even when day-to-day tasks seem mundane.

Accountability works, and it is an essential part of a Mastermind Group. In Mastermind9, our members have actions to complete each month and feedback on them. This in-built accountability means that we stay on track and achieve our goals for the month for the most significant challenge or opportunity we face. All with the support and encouragement of the team.

If you’re interested in joining our mastermind groups, register your interest to come for a free Mastermind Taster Session, or get in touch with us directly for more information.