Council Post: Accountability Groups: The Symbiotic Support Business Owners Need For The Long Haul

By Levi Lapp, founder and CEO of Signature Builders, an outdoor living company that builds structures for your lifestyle.

If you’re looking to take your business to the next level, refine your leadership skills or even make life transformations, a Google search reveals an overwhelming amount of options for you. Online courses, personal coaches and business coaches all claim to be what you need in order to unlock your full potential.

These avenues of growth may have their place in your business journey, especially when you’re first laying the foundation for a functioning business. But there’s a highly effective, often underestimated and usually more affordable method for betterment that stands out: accountability groups, also known as peer groups.

Accountability groups are small groups typically composed of three to eight people who are committed to working toward goals and holding one another accountable to accomplish them—but they do more than this. They can help you build a myriad of skills, grow as a leader and, ultimately, create a beautiful symbiosis that helps all involved tap into expansive success. Here’s a rundown of the multidimensional support that a strong accountability group offers.

Following Through On Your Ever-Evolving Goals

With our industries ever-evolving and our lives ever-changing, business owners need to be able to meet professional and personal challenges head-on by constantly learning and adapting. Goal-setting and subsequent follow-through are often the first steps to keeping pace with the demands of business and life, whether that means learning a new skill, resolving a sticking point in your business or investing time in your health.

But any business owner knows that lack of time, endless responsibilities and immediate business concerns can prevent follow-through on certain goals. So we need a system in place to help ensure we won’t let these goals fall to the wayside. That’s where accountability groups come in.

Research suggests the effectiveness of accomplishing goals with the support of others rather than going at it alone. From weight loss to addiction treatment and academic goal attainment, peer support and accountability often show positive results when it comes to setting and achieving goals.

Our businesses cannot reach their potential, and neither can we reach our own, if we don’t have a tried-and-true method to make change happen. Accountability groups offer you a system for following through with important goals on your entrepreneurial journey.

Tapping Into The Collective Intelligence Of The Group (While Nurturing Your Own)

When you have nuanced or unique issues in your business, who do you turn to? A coach or mentor may have a solution, and an online course may give insight into similar obstacles, but a group of business owners can offer a first-hand look into their own experiences along with ideas and thoughts on your problem areas.

Being exposed to the answers of others has been shown to boost performance in solving specific problems, and this holds true even if the solutions others come up with are “worse” than your own. This kind of diversity in ideas does not happen when hiring one coach or going through one business development course. A group of business owners offers more variability in the kind of problems solved, questions considered and answers conjured. So even when the question being considered is not your own, you’re exposed to endless learning opportunities and lessons you will likely one day utilize.

In addition to receiving solutions and ideas for specific problems, being part of a group of people dedicated to growing their businesses naturally builds other skill sets. One study points to the development of the skills of problem-solving, networking and deal-making. Other studies point to the benefits of collaborative learning, suggesting that it helps learners become critical thinkers. Accountability groups can help you develop transferable skills you can employ in a variety of business and non-business situations, even when you don’t have a group to brainstorm with.

Whole-Person Growth And Symbiotic Relationships That Strive Beyond Your Own Success

When we think about betterment as business owners, we should think as much, if not more, about being better leaders as we do about strategizing to increase profits. Joining an accountability group of business owners, specifically one centered on whole-life accountability (not just business growth), is an incredible way to do this.

In fact, leadership development training that emphasizes whole-person growth in areas such as self-awareness and resilience rather than tactical skills is one strategy that has been proven to improve organization-wide outcomes (registration required). This research emphasizes that being a strong leader depends on who you are beyond your technical abilities.

This makes sense, considering that business success often depends on strong, trustworthy leadership and effective teamwork. Put simply, we have to be able to work together in healthy, positive ways if we want to build something great together.

But perhaps that “something” we should ultimately be building together isn’t necessarily our own businesses, skills or lives. Maybe those are just byproducts of the greater work at hand. Maybe, instead, it’s about helping others build.

Many of the leaders I know at the top of their industries do just that; they constantly seek ways to serve and teach others. And the more they seem to help others, the more their own business needs are met.

That’s part of the idea behind the larger organization my accountability group is a part of. As a nonprofit organization focused on helping business owners think and act symbiotically, they consider how we can help our fellow business owners, employees and customers in their own pursuits. This symbiotic approach is the basis of true success.

What would happen if we prioritized lavishly giving out help and guidance? Suddenly, we may find ourselves surrounded by even smarter individuals who have been able to grow with our assistance (maybe individuals in our own accountability group) and are subsequently willing to radically help and share their ideas with us, too. We may be surprised at the success this generous symbiosis brings about—and the mutual accountability it instills within us.