In the past week, I had loads of fun helping a business owner create ways to achieve a better balance between his business and personal life.  As the conversation was finishing-up and after the business owner outlined what he was committing to do, he asked me to hold him accountable to doing those actions at our next conversation.

At that point, I stopped and said the following:

“I will not hold you accountable for your actions as I am not an accountability coach!”

 The business owner looked at me rather quizzically and responded that he thought my role as his business coach & mentor was to hold him accountable.

I responded that I am a great believer in the need for a person to be held accountable for their actions.

However, I believe that above all else he must be accountable to himself.  In that way, he will undertake the agreed actions because he believes those actions will help him create the life to which he truly aspires.  If he was undertaking them because, as his business coach, I told him they were the right thing to do, he was committing to them for the wrong reasons.

For me, the fascinating part of the follow-up conversation will be not whether the business owner has undertaken the agreed actions but seeking to understand as to why he is having difficulty in taking those actions.   To look for the root cause of the difficulty as to why the business owner is not implementing the agreed actions.

If I can help him solve the root cause, there will be a real & lasting breakthrough that will change the business and personal life of the business owner.