At Accountability Works, we see accountability coaching as a way to cultivate awareness so that you can make better, more aligned choices.
You are always accountable. Whether you act or don’t act, decide or defer, you live with the consequences. That’s the nature of accountability—you are the proud owner of all your choices, all the time.
So when things aren’t going the way you’d like, you can choose to change, build better habits, and follow through on the things you’ve been telling yourself you want to do.
Being Accountable
This is where things can get confusing. When you say you want to “be more accountable” or want someone else to be, it sounds like you’re trying to exert control.
In truth, being accountable is about bringing awareness, choice, and action to areas where you’ve been unconscious or unintentional.
Accountability Coaching in Practice
When you work with an accountability coach, you start by making a series of decisions:
- We start with visioning – Where do you see yourself 3 months from now? 3 years from now?
Once you’ve clarified what you want to experience, we help you set aligned goals, aka intentional choices about where to focus your time and energy. Usually, these goals are driven by what’s keeping you up at night, occupying your thoughts, or genuinely exciting you. Whether you are addressing something painful or energizing, the decision to focus on it feels good.
Then we ask:
- How do you want to address your goals?
- What actions will you take?
- What are you willing to commit to this week?
And then, of course, we’ll check in with you a week later to see if you followed through or chose not to.
Why Awareness Matters
Mindful accountability brings awareness to your actions (or absence of action) so you can make more informed decisions.
When you complete an action, we talk about what you learned and what you want to commit to next. Without that check in, you might not complete it as quickly or at all. You might not pause to notice if the action moved you forward or what to adjust.
But it’s when you don’t complete the action that the most insight often emerges. We guide you through the choice points, patterns of behavior and ways of thinking that are holding you back.
That’s how the elements of mindful accountability coaching come together:
- Increased awareness
- Better choices
- Consistent structure
- Reflection and feedback
Why Choice Wins Over Control
You never want accountability to be about control. Control is rigid. It’s rooted in fear.
And when you’re operating from fear, you are more likely to resist change, feel frustrated when plans don’t go as expected, and blame yourself (or others) for falling short.
Choice is different. When you’re in choice, you have greater mental flexibility. Instead of giving up or falling into self-blame, you can meet resistance with curiosity. You are willing to investigate what’s holding you back.
When helping clients move through resistance, we ask questions like:
- Why is this action/commitment/goal important to you?
- Where else are you experiencing this resistance?
- When did you decide not to take this action?
- Knowing what you know now, what would you do differently?
Although clients sometimes expect accountability coaching to mean we are going to “whip you into shape,” what we actually do is whip you into awareness.
We provide the structure to stay focused and intentional, manage setbacks with empathy, and infuse it all with a love of learning.
Staying in awareness is staying in choice. It means you always have the opportunity to create the changes and outcomes that are most meaningful to you. If all we do is remind you over and over again, where you want to focus your energy, and that the power to create what you want is in the choices you make today, that would be enough, but we add to that community, consistency, and connection to support and inspire you along the way.
