Burger Bites: Accountability

The Burger Bites Series Is Designed To Bring You A Taste Of Coaching.

How ironic that accountability is next on my list of topics to describe coaching. I have a plan to post two “Burger Bites” articles per month, one in the first half and one in the second. It’s near the end of the month and I have yet to post the first one! What would have happened if I had talked about this goal while I was being coached?

The International Coach Federation (ICF) is the leading organization defining and overseeing the practice of coaching. As I wrote about before, the ICF makes it clear that coaching isn’t coaching without an action plan. A client can talk about vision, long-term goals, or even a particular project that is causing immediate frustration. But if the client doesn’t state at least one specific next step, coaching is not complete.

The coach is responsible to make sure the client’s ideas, possibilities, and options become focused. A coach will ask, What are you going to do? By when? How will you let me know?

That doesn’t seem like a very big deal when you’re the one asking the questions. In fact, early on in my training, I looked at that part of the coaching process and thought it was overly simple. I even thought it was a bit sneaky to have an entire profession growing rapidly around helping people meet their goals when the secret to the process was asking them what they were going to do next. You mean that’s it?

But from the client’s point of view, it is a very big deal. When you’re being coached, and it’s near the end of the session, you know it’s coming. You’ve discussed different things you can try, and you’ve talked about what might be the best and easiest next thing to do. You start wondering if you can “get away with” picking a really easy goal that you know you can meet. “I’m going to write down the names of three people I can tell about my new business,” or, “I’m going to clear the papers off the top of my filing cabinet,” or, “I’m going to take a shower every day.”

Barbara Sher invented Success Teams over thirty years ago because she believes when people are pursuing their dreams, “Isolation is the dream killer.” Barbara basically created coaching groups before coaching was developed! She explains the power of making a commitment in front of people. If you say you’re going to do something before the next group meeting, you do it. You probably procrastinate and then stay up late the night before, but you do it.

The power of accountability is that you are actually accountable to yourself. If you don’t take the steps you committed to take, your coach won’t complain, criticize you, or berate you. He or she might ask what you learned from the experience so you can make more realistic plans and find a way to follow through, but it’s really not a huge problem for your coach if you don’t take your steps. You’re the one who is disappointed. You’re the one who is taking longer to accomplish your goal.

When you do complete your steps, your coach recognizes it and congratulates you. If they were especially challenging steps, your coach celebrates with you. And your coach is genuinely celebrating, because he or she is committed to an alliance with your better self, with the person you wish to become.

That’s why a coach doesn’t get on your case about not doing your steps one week. It doesn’t help develop your better self. But if you establish a pattern of not taking steps, your coach will shine a light on that. No, make that a laser. If you consistently let yourself down, you are blocking yourself from becoming the person you wish to be. And that’s something a coach will care about very much. But even then your coach is holding you accountable to yourself, to your better future self.

I think I’ll e-mail my coaching group and let them know I want to be accountable for posting the second “Burger Bites” article for this month by the end of next week. I might even ask them to hold me accountable for posting two articles per month until this series is done. Making a commitment like that sounds small, but it always feels so much bigger.