Make Yourself Get Things Done (Accountability, Part 2)

Creating accountability is challenging because it is easy to get caught up in the day-to-day operations of your business. If you are not generating ideas to overcome business issues and then implementing those solutions, long-term success can be hard to achieve. Here are some ways you can start holding yourself more accountable to improve your business success:

Set a clear course for achievement. Do you have a mission that really energizes you? Do you have a vision for where you are taking your business and what it will look like when you reach that peak? Sometimes we lose our own sense of accountability because we do not know if doing something will get us what we really want. It all starts with having a clear picture of where you are going and how you plan to get there.

Start with yourself. When expense budgets get out of control, we start cutting costs to ensure we do not exceed our targets. It should be the same with other deliverables. Don’t "try" to get that key project done. Get it done. Make it happen. Commit. Change your mindset and your language to match your new approach to accountability.

Broaden your idea base. Involve other experienced parties, such as your employees, alliance partners, or even vendors in generating ideas. Commit to getting back to them with progress reports on how the solutions worked. Letting others "own" a piece of the outcome makes them interested in what is happening and drives your own sense of accountability to them.

Make a commitment to following these suggestions and make yourself more accountable to your business. You will quickly find that by doing so, you will be a more productive business owner.

Contributed by Dave Mischler, President of Inner Circle Chicago, as featured in Business Week.