Get Things Done In The Job Search: Be Accountable

I have joined an accountability group.

At first I joined because of, well, maybe because of peer pressure.  I am pretty self-motivated and don’t feel like I need anyone to push me along, or check in on me.  I think I’m the type of person who gets lots of things done on my own.

But the group I joined has amazing people in it, and I was honored to be invited.

The first round was 90 days, and we met four times.  The first meeting was to get started, lay down the ground rules, and propose what we were going to accomplish in 90 days. We were also supposed to bring the money to forfeit if we didn’t accomplish what we said we would.

The next two meetings were monthly checkins just to report progress.

The final meeting was to report how we did, and of course we had all met our goal.

We also decided to do it again.

I learned to not commit to too much, so I had one major goal (to finish my Eight Lunches book), and a bunch of “bonus” goals – that is, goals that I am working towards, but if I don’t finish, I wouldn’t have failed the 90 day period.

Every day I think about my one goal, and work on it, and think about the group. I know that within 30 days I’ll have another checking, and I want to make sure I’m making serious progress, and that in 90 days I’ll be done.

Am I self-motivated? Sure.

Could I do this without the group? Sure.

But I’ve been working on this for about three years now, and it hasn’t gotten done.  I’ve let other things get in the way.  Other good things… but it’s pushed back my book, and I haven’t had anything to show.

Finding someone, or a group, to be accountable to is NOT a sign of weakness.

I tell job seekers to find a coach they can be accountable to. They should meet and report WEEKLY, and the coach should ask hard questions (“did you do this?  why not?”). It is not a time to have a pity party, and whine and sob.  It’s a time to move forward, towards good objectives.

A coach will help ensure you are working towards good objectives (instead of spending lots of time wasting time in your job search).

Having a meeting next week will help you work towards those. No matter how self-motivated you are, just knowing you are going to have to report to your coach will help you do things, even if you don’t want to do them.

Be accountable to someone and your job search will change!