It seems fitting to discuss, as the calendar rolls over into October, a month traditionally associated with spooks, scares, and Halloween, one of the most frightening parts of business an entrepreneur can face. Accountability is, for the entrepreneur, an interesting and odd concept. Unlike the work force of the majority, it is not often that the entrepreneur has a boss to report his success or failures back to; it is much more common that the entrepreneur is the boss, the one with whom the buck stops, and to whom all other employees are ultimately accountable. Within this framework, and the lack of direct and obvious accountability an entrepreneur has to any one person, it is easy to unintentionally invite a host of problems into one's business.
This is certainly not to say that accountability does not exist in the entrepreneur's business and role in some sense. The entrepreneur is accountable for his decisions, his vision, his success, and, as he is the one in charge, he is accountable for the overall success or failure of his business. At a glance, one might believe that this burden, the heaviest of any in the organization, would be sufficient to keep the entrepreneur on track. Often times, though, this is not the case. Truly, the entrepreneur knows, in the back of his mind, that their decisions impact the business, and that if success is to happen, as the old adage goes, "if it is to be, it's up to [him]." Why, then, do entrepreneurs seem to let this fundamental truth get away from them? Why do entrepreneurs not achieve the levels of success they are capable of?
A lack of accountability to a singular person, such as a employee has to his boss, creates a disconnect in the feedback or effect caused by any action (or inaction, as the case may be). When the entrepreneur has to steer the company, he is considering a wide plethora of options and decisions, on top of trying to manage the day-to-day activities that fall upon his plate. The lag between decisions (or non-decisions) that have more subtle impacts creates a situation wherein the entrepreneur, too busy with everything else he has to do and lacking accountability to any single person, does not tend to track the data on cause and effect. Consequentially, the entrepreneur is not working on the high-level executive decisions he should be. It is a sloppy game of guess-and-check, and the results are predictably subpar. Rather than continuing to accept the inconsistent or seemingly random results of your business, this October, force yourself to find the time to become accountable to yourself. Track metrics and data, follow up with yourself on decisions you have made, and act as your own boss, demanding that your work be effective and efficient. And of course, if you find yourself at a loss of where to begin, BMI is there to help; our HR team can create report cards to help you track your crucial data, and our VIPs Group is to hold you accountable.
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