Accountability In Business: Whose Job Is It?
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Accountability: Whose Job Is It?
If you’ve ever worked for a company that was struggling to meet revenue goals, the following scenario will be all too familiar.
By: Steve Smith
If you’ve ever worked for a company that was struggling to meet revenue goals, the following scenario will be all too familiar.
By: Steve Smith
You are on the sales team and your manager comes in the meeting room and tells you and your colleagues that he’s raising the bar. You now have to work twice as hard, see 50% more customers and hit your sales goal by the end of the month in order to keep your job. You think to yourself, in this economy this is crazy! I’m already working 12 hours a day and now he wants me to work more and accomplish what we can’t already get done. You may resent the edict and your boss for demanding the unthinkable but you value your job so you crank it up and go for it. In this situation, you are being held accountable to produce results that you cannot see happening.
Now, suppose you are a small business owner and the same results are needed to insure you keep your business open. Despite the marketplace conditions, your business will only survive if you raise the bar on your own performance. Regardless of what your business does, sales and marketing strategies are now the most important activities on your schedule. The question is; who holds you accountable for getting it down?
Committing yourself to do what you don’t think is possible is very difficult for most people. When others force us to perform, somehow we manage to get it done if the stakes are high enough, i.e. keeping your job. Why is it so difficult to hold yourself accountable to getting it done to keep your business?
Part of the issue is limited mindset thinking. Focusing on what you’ve done to date only reinforces what you have fallen short on. This further reinforces your feelings of hesitancy about committing to results you having been able to accomplish. Having someone who can separate themselves from your current plight in order to focus your efforts on achieving better results is what you need to raise the bar on your own outcome.
The best performers in business, sports and entertainment got that way because they understood this concept and got the support they needed to help push themselves beyond their own skill set or mindset beliefs and accomplish what they knew they could not do on their own.
If you want the business you originally dreamed of having, invest in yourself and get a small business mentor or small business coach to take you to the performance level you really want. You may not like the idea of someone else demanding things of you that you know you should be doing but the results will be worth it. The alternative is the first scenario!
Now, suppose you are a small business owner and the same results are needed to insure you keep your business open. Despite the marketplace conditions, your business will only survive if you raise the bar on your own performance. Regardless of what your business does, sales and marketing strategies are now the most important activities on your schedule. The question is; who holds you accountable for getting it down?
Committing yourself to do what you don’t think is possible is very difficult for most people. When others force us to perform, somehow we manage to get it done if the stakes are high enough, i.e. keeping your job. Why is it so difficult to hold yourself accountable to getting it done to keep your business?
Part of the issue is limited mindset thinking. Focusing on what you’ve done to date only reinforces what you have fallen short on. This further reinforces your feelings of hesitancy about committing to results you having been able to accomplish. Having someone who can separate themselves from your current plight in order to focus your efforts on achieving better results is what you need to raise the bar on your own outcome.
The best performers in business, sports and entertainment got that way because they understood this concept and got the support they needed to help push themselves beyond their own skill set or mindset beliefs and accomplish what they knew they could not do on their own.
If you want the business you originally dreamed of having, invest in yourself and get a small business mentor or small business coach to take you to the performance level you really want. You may not like the idea of someone else demanding things of you that you know you should be doing but the results will be worth it. The alternative is the first scenario!
Steve Smith is the OneCoach Business Partner for Saddleback Valley-CA, where he now coaches and mentors small-business owners and entrepreneurs, helping them get the answers they need to grow the businesses they want.
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