Is there such a thing as being accountable to ourselves?

I’ve been pondering the concept of self-accountability this week sparked by several conversations around whether that’s even a thing and how (and whether) it works in practice.

According to the Cambridge Dictionary, accountability is defined as “the fact of being responsible for what you do and able to give a satisfactory reason for it, or the degree to which it happens”.

Accountability is all about taking responsibility and is often seen as taking responsibility for our actions particularly in relation to others.

One of the biggest areas of life where we all work with self-accountability is in our regular habits and routines.

Things like an exercise routine or meditation practice or a productivity routine in work or business often have a self-accountability component. These are things that we’ve decided we want to do on a regular basis to take care of ourselves or follow through on our goal-related actions.

In my own life I’ve often struggled with consistency with these things and have tried all sorts of methods for keeping myself accountable to those commitments I’ve made to myself.

I’ve tried journaling, paper trackers, tracking apps, post-it note reminders, leaving a physical item in a place where I’ll see it as a trigger (eg. running shoes at the bedroom door).

However, I’ve often shied away from making ‘public’ pronouncements about the things I’m committing to.

If I reflect on that, I believe that unwillingness to ‘go public’ is around a fear or being seen to fail or fall short in the eyes of others. If I only commit to myself and don’t tell anyone about it, I don’t have to worry about the consequences if I don’t follow through.

Clearly, this is self-defeating as it just weakens the strength of the commitment.

Because here’s the thing.. The times when I have shared my goals or commitments with others - either by telling people about it or when I’ve worked with a coach and developed and committed to an action plan - are the times when I’ve been the most consistent with my follow through.

Accountability is a foundational concept in coaching. The idea is that by stating to an external party what we plan to do and by when, we are far more likely to follow through and do the thing we’ve committed ourselves to.

There is a popular TED talk that presented the idea that sharing your goals is counterproductive. While that makes for great clickbait, the majority of the research into this area finds that not to be the case.

Several studies have shown that who you share your goals with makes a difference. Committing to someone you hold in high regard rather than someone you don’t particularly respect, creates the best results.

According to the American Society of Training and Development the likelihood of someone completing a goal was 65% if they committed to someone else. This jumped to 95% if they have an appointment with that person to follow-up.

Having been coached, I am not surprised by that jump. When I’ve committed to something with my coach and I know they will follow-up with me at our next session, I go out of my way to make sure I do it.

Interestingly, this power is further amplified when we commit to something within a group setting versus telling one other individual.

As part of my coaching certification, I did a research project exploring the factors that make the most difference in helping group coaching participants to apply what they learn and get results.

The most strongly recurring theme in that research was that accountability is more effective in a group setting. As group coaching researcher Pamela Rea Van Dyke states:

“Although one-on-one coaching can be very effective, it is often approaches that utilize group techniques that lead to greater commitment and increased accountability at the individual level” (Van Dyke, 2016).

Experienced group coach Ann Deaton PhD, also notes that accountability to the group is a powerful force in participants taking action:

“If they have to report to me as a one-on-one coach they will typically do it. When reporting back to eight people, it is rare that they don’t do what they say they will.” (cited in Britton, 2010).

Who can you share your goals with?

Think about all this in the context of what you’d like to achieve and who you have in your life.

What groups or individuals could you share your goals and action commitments with, to give yourself a better chance of achieving them?