How to be a good accountability partner

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For a successful organisation, it is important that the staff working is accountable for their actions; that is, they understand what they are required to do, what solutions they can provide, and, in the end, how they can deliver good results towards the targeted goal. So it goes for the accountability partners.

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Who is an accountability partner?

An accountability partner is the one with whom you build a relationship based on commitment, mutual agreement, and feedback that you provide to each other regularly. You share your goals with your accountability partner. You share your highs and lows as you work towards the goal together.

Accountability makes you answerable and accountable for your actions and outcomes. Sharing a good relationship with a good accountability partner can boost the chances of effective pathways to the targeted goals.

How to be a good accountability partner

There are some vital qualities of a good accountability partner along with commitment, communication, supportiveness, faithfulness, thoughtfulness, and understanding. So let’s look at the key points that can help you achieve the goal of becoming one.

1. Action Plan

Identify and sort out the action plan for yourself and your accountability partner so that you can start your relationship with your partner effectively. The action plan actually helps you and your partner to be encouraged from the very first step of partnership. The action plan can actually provide you with both profitable and attainable goals.

2. Being Realistic

As you set your action plan and goals for yourself and your partner, you need to understand that it has to be realistic. The more realistic you set your goals and responsibilities for your partner, the better results you will get. You need to make sure that, based on these, you grow and nurture a relationship that’s faithful and honest.

Assist your partner in setting realistic goals and focusing on one at a time. This way, you will both work towards achieving goals together.

3. Being Trustworthy

Be open and clear about the targets that you want to set and about the responsibilities that you want to assign to each other. This way, you will build clear communication skills and it will lead to building trust with each other as a partner.

As you build a trustworthy relationship, you will both be more committed to working in the same direction.

4. Set Examples

If you want your accountability partner to be responsible and committed towards his responsibilities, then you need to set examples yourself. For example, if you have set a target and a deadline to complete the target or task, then complete it at the given time and share the details with your partner. That way, the partner will be equally motivated to work on his part of the duties.

5. Challenge Each Other

Everyone loves new challenges as it keeps them on their toes and motivated to look forward to completing new tasks. Therefore, to keep yourself and your accountability partner, it is important that you both develop a relationship where you can challenge each other with realistic targets.

That will keep you both equally motivated and help you both achieve your end goals. Be honest and faithful to each other; share your opinions in case one of you is not able to achieve the challenge 100%. Share the feedback to make sure that the person also gets the opportunity to improve.

6. Good Communication Skills

As a working partner, it is very crucial that you develop a good communication channel or open dialogue. So that you both are able to share your opinions about the tasks, team, and method that you both want to work on.

Once you develop open communication skills, it will give you and your partner the opportunity to speak clearly and honestly. That will help you to develop more respect, trust, and faith in each other. This way, you will be able to rely on each other and work effectively.

Concluding Thoughts

As you have already chosen your right accountability partner, you need to ensure that you become an example yourself as an accountability partner first. Set realistic and achievable expectations so that the other person is able to perform and give you the right results. Any partnership is based on trust, loyalty, good communication, faithfulness, and honest feedback. It is important that you work on the relationship first, and then you will be able to achieve all the desired goals together.

One has to be motivated to be an accountability partner. To do that, you have to make sure that you share honest feedback and encourage the partner with the right rewards when it is required. When you share the same vision of goals, then it becomes easier to work on the path together. So make your partner understand what it is exactly that you require of them.