If you've ever had a dream, you know making it come true requires work and time. No big, worthwhile goal is a single-step process – it at least requires three key fundamental elements for success: clarity in thought and intention, a plan, and proper execution.

This is heavy stuff! Especially if you're trying to do it all by yourself. Granted, some goals are meant to be and should be personal, but it doesn't mean you have to do everything alone. Having an accountability partner who's in the loop on action plans and keeps you accountable works better!

What is Accountability?

You can call it answerability, liability, obligation, or several other names, but accountability is, in simple terms, an assurance you give someone on taking action on something you're responsible for. This doesn't just cover responsibilities at work – even while executing your own goals, making yourself accountable to another person or someone else is a promise that you will achieve what you've set out to accomplish or do. And doesn't everyone like to keep their promises?

Now you may ask, why involve others in your goals? Fair question. But as we know by now, no goal is easy, and sometimes you just lose steam.

What do you do when you're going through a bad phase and nothing seems to be working out? When you need to cull out your negative thought patterns and limiting beliefs, and pick yourself up? When you need to overcome procrastination, do better time management, and just get your task done?

You can try to keep encouraging yourself, and so can friends and family, but motivation alone is not enough to get you going. There need to be systems and discipline. Having an accountability partner or even working with an accountability coach to keep an eye on all of it for you brings returns in spades!

Accountability Coaching - Do I Need It?

What is accountability coaching?

It's all the rage on productivity platforms these days! Basically, it's the act of keeping someone on their toes and answerable to their goals. The best accountability coaches are those coaches who help you identify challenges and tackle obstacles, make plans toward your goals, introduce proven strategies to keep you focused, productive, and on track, and provide one-on-one support throughout the process.

Who needs it?

We would say, all of us! But accountability coaches are especially helpful for those who struggle with procrastination over things they do not want to do or are afraid to get started if they can't do things perfectly. Or those who know what they want to achieve and need to do, but are just not sure how to develop the skills and habits needed to achieve it, or just can't bring themselves to actually do it.

Is accountability coaching the same as life coaching?

In a word, no. An accountability coach and a life coach are quite different. A life coach is basically a wellness professional who helps bring positivity into your life, let go of habits that do more harm than good, and make positive changes to make sure you're reaching your maximum potential to fulfill all your desires and goals.

An accountability coach, on the other hand, is more narrowly focused on creating measurable goals: they do not provide tips on how to live your best life, but rather are focused and concerned with how you can accomplish specific goals you've shared with them. An accountability coach helps you find answers to the question "How do I do this?" rather than "What should I do?" – although sometimes there is an overlap.

Let's consider an example. Say you've not been feeling great about your health lately. You're thinking about why that is, and wondering if you should work towards a better work life balance. That's something your life coach might help you unravel.

On the other hand, say you've decided you're not feeling healthy because you do not spend time doing exercise as much as you like to, but you're running into some issues as you try to be fitter. You just can't motivate yourself enough to actually wake up in the morning to go to the gym. An accountability coach helps you create a plan of action, and then help iterate on it, develop solid strategies, add tips to keep you motivated, and then track your progress as you go through the journey. A perfect coach is just guaranteed to bring much better outcomes!

Boss as a Service vs Accountability Coaching

So is BaaS like other accountability coaching services and coaches you've encountered? We don't have one-word answers here. At BaaS, we do follow some principles and practices as accountability coaches, but we've also put a spin on it and created our own unique take on accountability coaching.

What Boss as a Service does

Before we get into this, think about what your idea of a boss is. (Someone who makes you do all the work and takes all the credit? Just kidding, just kidding).

In seriousness, a boss is someone who makes sure you know the outcome you're going for and the actions you take, that are aimed towards it. A good boss knows when their team needs encouragement, when they need guidance, and when they need a reality check.

Just like that, at BaaS we aim to make sure that you stay motivated and know what you're working for, and how you're getting there. We push you – with motivation or with tough love, as needed! We act as a "Boss" for your life, providing the accountability and structure that might be missing, especially if you work independently.

Who should join Boss as a Service

At BaaS, we want to create and emulate the structure of a relationship with a real boss, for those who don't have one – entrepreneurs, freelancers, students, writers, or folks who are self-employed. The role of a good boss is to provide some structure to the work you do in a day and identify what's going right and what needs work. That's where BaaS comes in! See our homepage for more details about this!

Also, BaaS isn't just for people and clients who work independently. We also help you achieve personal goals, by helping you create structure and work with intention just as we would for your business and professional goals.

How Boss as a Service helps

Achieving Clarity

The first step in achieving a goal – especially long-term goals – is getting clarity and direction. So that's where we get started as well! We do this by asking and helping you answer these questions:

• What will you do? – What was the trigger that pushed you to join BaaS? What's that one goal you've always been meaning to get started on, but never seemed to? Is this a realistic goal?
• When will you have time to do it? – Life is so busy nowadays. So we want you to look at your time management, current goals, long-term goals and schedule and make a realistic plan on all the things you need to do for your long-term top goal and how you can break it down and fit them in consistently across the day, week, month or year.
• Who can support you? – If any specific part of the goal requires you to learn from or work with others, then we help you figure out how best to get the support and knowledge you need.
• What resources will you need to succeed? – As above, we help you identify everything you need to set yourself up for success, and how to get them!

Daily Progress and Accountability

As we get started, one of our most important principles is to make progress and accountability a daily habit. Streaks are so important to gain momentum and focus. Once you develop focus and create a successful rhythm for something, all the fear and hesitation dissipates, your focus and success spirals get bigger and bigger till you reach the place you want to be!

So for daily accountability, we require proof that helps us ensure you're staying on track, and building that momentum, staying true to your promise. We'll check in every day with you for this, and not let you slip at any point during the week or month.

And as progress and growth happens, it gets easy to take important things a bit for granted and overfill your days with lots of things. This is where you lose focus. So we're here to call you out and make sure you still remember what's important, and whether you're spending enough time on it.

Retrospection - An Important Pillar of Accountability Coaching

Next step: retrospection! Regularly reviewing what we've done, how much time we took, what went right and what needed some more thinking and tinkering is key to ensure we're going down the right growth path. Here is also where we remember and celebrate our wins, and reiterate lessons from our failures!

On the flip side, if the review shows we're not exactly heading down the right path, then we're here to discuss redirection towards a better one.

Let's see an example!

How Accountability with BaaS works - A Detailed Example

So you've decided you want to exercise. With BaaS, together, we'll decide on a plan that works – gym every day at 6 pm, with screenshots from a fitness tracker as proof.

The first week goes great. You make it to the gym, stay on track with the plan, and let us know how it's going. We also note that you need to bring in more variety in the equipment you use, during the review.

But next week, you miss going to the gym a couple of times. It's a busy time of the year at work for you, and a couple of deadlines and meetings sneak up unexpectedly.

This is a critical moment. Imagine you're working by yourself. What's likely to happen? You tell yourself you'll deprioritize going to the gym for a few weeks till the busy times at work let up a bit. There's always time to get back on it after all, after things get back to normal.

Big mistake. You know that what's going to happen is, you completely fall off the wagon, and at the end of 2 weeks, as the missed deadlines pile up, find some more creative excuses for not working out. You constant cycle of "I'll begin this tomorrow / next Monday" goes on for a month or so, till you abandon all pretense that you're even trying. And just like that, you're spending all your evenings with junk food and Netflix, your big goals for the year forgotten.

What happens when you hire a Boss? First off, you can't slack off and make excuses, and we won't let those missed deadlines go by without pushing back! We'll check in, chase you up and demand answers. If you tell us it's a busy time at work, we usually don't let you off the hook altogether! Instead, we'll suggest you keep our accountability structure going, and you continue to stay accountable, but instead of going to the gym, perhaps you can do a shortened version of the workout at home. How about some push-ups every day?

When you try to flake out, we call you out on it. And we make sure you stay on track, through this busy time, so you don't fall off the wagon and abandon your goals altogether. That's the secret of staying consistent. And that's how you achieve big things –  by not giving up when the going gets tough!

And that's why you need a Boss.

Final Thoughts

Accountability coaching is one of the highest ROI investments you can make if you're really serious about your goals. If the accountability that comes with having a Boss is what you need – join us here!