Are you helping your members create success by holding them accountable?

Accountability is one of the cornerstone principles in mastermind groups. It’s all about helping others to reach their goals through purposeful, sustainable action.

Wikipedia describes accountability as, “A is accountable to B when A is obliged to inform B about A’s (past or future) actions and decisions, to justify them, and to suffer punishment in the case of eventual misconduct.”

Yikes! I’m not so sure about the “suffer punishment” part when you talk about accountability in mastermind groups!

But certainly setting up an accountability structure can help Person A get things done, and Person B can help hold their feet to the fire.

The members’ roles in accountability

In mastermind groups, members agree to:

• Pay close attention to each members’ overall goals.
• When actions are not completed or not achieved by the deadline date, remind each other of the purpose and importance of taking those actions.
• Challenge a member when their actions are not leading toward the goal they desire.
• Applaud each other when wise decisions and strong actions are taken.

The Facilitator’s role in accountability

The group Facilitator is responsible to:

• Keep a list of which actions each member says they will achieve (and the due date for each action).
• Check-in with each member between meetings to see how they are progressing towards their proposed actions.
• Watch for members who are doing the right thing at the wrong time.
• Double-check that actions are in alignment with goals.
• Watch for goal-shifting as a way to avoid action.
• Help floundering members to get past their struggles.

When I surveyed my own mastermind group members, 60% told me they wanted to be held accountable for the actions/goals they promised in our mastermind group meetings. (The other 40%? I think that’s another blog post altogether!)

The power of accountability means members implement instead of pondering and wandering in circles. If you don’t take action, you can’t see what outcome appears, and you stay stuck where you are. Accountability extends the power of a mastermind group between meetings and works in tandem with setting and keeping goals within the mastermind meetings themselves.