Improve Your Chance of Goal Attainment by 95%

I want to talk to you about something that can actually increase the likelihood of you getting your personal or professional goals accomplished by 95% (or how to improve your chance by 95%). The truth of the matter is that motivation is something that can wax and wane; our motivation and our employees’ motivation. It can really affect our ability to get things done. We end up with all these unfinished projects. How many times have you assigned something and it just never seems to get completed? You feel like you’re beating your head against a wall trying to get the results that you want.

Studies have shown there are two things that can increase the likelihood of goals being accomplished. One of them is incentives and the second is accountability. I don’t want you to roll your eyes. This is one of those things you may have heard before. But I really want to talk and dive deeper on the accountability part of it and how you can make a huge impact in your business and in your professional life when it comes to accountability being your game plan.

In your business it’s true that incentives can be helpful but for most employees incentives are helpful but it’s not what they’re primarily looking for other than a great, “Atta-boy, “ and a recognition of a job well done. When it comes to accountability most people think of it in a punitive manner. We think of it as someone holding us accountable by a past boss, medical instructor, parents or something that you’re projecting onto your employees or your own children.  Accountability is really just a willingness to accept personal responsibility for your own actions. Thinking about it in a punitive manner is very detrimental to how effective accountability really can be.

I’m going to give you a couple of examples. You can apply this in your personal life and in your business. I’ve found that this works really well. There have actually been some studies done by the American Society of Training and Development. They did an accountability study. What they found was that people were 65% more likely to accomplish a goal or an outcome if they were in contact with at least one other person telling them about that. And, if they actually had an appointment set up with someone (ex: someone has a personal goal and set up an appointment with a personal trainer to meet for fitness), they actually increased their likelihood of success. That accountability appointment can be with a business coach or personal trainer.  It’s with someone in an official role that’s holding you to your commitment. It can seriously increase your outcome.

When you apply this in your business and apply it with your employees what that means is that you can keep them accountable. But rather than doing it in a negative or threatening way, you want to keep them accountable in a powerful and positive way. Let them know they’re taking responsibility for a certain outcome. It’s not you needing to meet with them every single day. Give them an outcome and then work with them to get to that outcome. You can have accountability meetings with them. For example when I coach clients or when I’m working with practices, I have accountability meetings with them but I keep it really positive.  What I want is an outcome and for them to be successful, just like you want your employees to be successful to the goals that your business has are attained.  So that means just be positive with them, be that check in with them and make sure they have the resources to implement what needs to be implemented. Let them take some responsibility for that. Those accountability meetings end up being a very positive thing. Where are you now? How far have you come? If there have been barriers, what are those barriers? Then help them work through that to get past those barriers versus reprimanding them for why they aren’t where they need to be.

That’s a much more positive way of getting the outcome you really want and accountability, but letting them know up front that they take responsibility for this outcome and they take personal responsibility for their actions. You’re there to help guide them and get them there. It might take a little bit more time on your part initially to have these meeting with them but in the end they’re so much appreciative. You actually helped them gain an additional skill. You helped them seek an outcome and then accomplish it. Then, you take the time to actually thank them and to encourage them to take on additional responsibility. This is how your team gets built in a really positive way. It’s so important versus just dictating tasks or yelling at everyone because you didn’t get something on time. In my practice I work with employees in that same manner. We deal with outcomes. What’s the outcome you want? What’s the revenue you want? What’s the patient satisfaction you want? What’s the weight loss outcome you want? You can do the same with your patients actually. It can be a really positive way to get those goals accomplished. It’s much more enjoyable for you because you don’t have to be the one out there reprimanding. To help us stay on track, for example, our overall goals from a revenue perspective is measured on a weekly basis. Someone has responsibility for that. We go back and evaluate that.  We evaluate it monthly. We compare it with the previous year. It’s just this great system in place to help make sure you’re getting to where it is you want to go and modifying that along the way.

I hope you find this helpful. If you need some assistance in your own practice on how to implement positive accountability reach out to me: [email protected]   I have some super affordable ways to work together to help get that outcome you want. Or we can do a quick call. I can talk you through a few things and help you to attain what it is you want most out of your practice. In addition, don’t forget to take care of yourself so you’re accomplishing personal goals and you’re a great example for your employees and your patients.

I hope this served you well. Place some comments down below. If you aren’t already subscribing to my podcast or my YouTube channel make sure you do so.