While facilitating a leadership session focused on personal and professional success habits a few months ago, I shared that one of the most important elements of success in life is to take action. Having a vision, goals, and intentions are important, but often the gap of where you are and where you want to be comes down to taking consistent action on your goals and plans. 

During an exercise I was leading the group through around cleaning up incomplete tasks in your life, I admitted that I have been putting off executing our family trust for years. Over the past seven years, I have updated and printed the trust three times, but never had it notarized. I committed to the group that I would take action and complete the trust. But then something happened that spurred me into action. One of the participants raised his hand and said he also wanted to update his will, and that we could be accountability partners. We committed to completing these actions by the end of May, and that we would check in then. And guess what happened? I finally executed the trust! Having an accountability partner who emailed me to check in made all the difference (thanks, Perry!). This is an excellent strategy we can use both personally and professionally. For harder, time consuming, or challenging tasks and projects that you tend to procrastinate on, committing to someone else your plan for action can give you the extra accountability you need to follow through. 

This is one area leaders often struggle with—putting off the important for the urgent, and spending their days reacting to interruptions and issues rather than intentionally scheduling and focusing on their priorities. It’s human nature to focus on what’s easy and avoid tasks that are harder, longer, or unpleasant. Our brain gets a hit of dopamine when we accomplish something, which is why checking small things off your list makes you feel good (I sometimes add something to my list that I’ve already done, just to check it off!), even if it’s not contributing to your most important result areas. Those small activities make us feel like we are getting a lot done, but often we aren’t working on the right things. 

Just like a clear deadline tends to increase action and accountability with employees, you can use the same strategy on yourself. Ask a colleague to hold you accountable for important projects, tasks, or even personal things like exercise to increase your own accountability. For example, at dinner last month, my friend and I talked about how we want to start adding strength training into our workout routine. We both committed to do strength training three times a week and check in with each other each Friday. I haven’t hit that goal 100% of the time, but I’ve achieved that goal 80% of the time because I know she will be checking in with me each week. If we didn’t set up that check in, I wouldn’t have felt as compelled to follow through, even though I think the goal is important. 

Perhaps there’s a challenging conversation you’ve been putting off having with an employee, or a big project that takes a lot of energy and time that keeps getting moved to the next day on your to do list. You know you should get into action, but the little things keep getting in the way. Or you want to start leaving the office at a decent time or get to bed earlier during the week. Commit to a trusted colleague when you will complete something, or share with them a new habit you want to implement and ask them to follow up with you. This might be the extra step you need to achieve your goals. 

Even high-achieving professionals sometimes struggle with taking action on important tasks or projects. Committing to an accountability partner is a smart strategy when you find yourself putting off the things that matter in your life.  

Laurie Maddalena, MBA, CSP, CPCC, is a certified executive coach, leadership consultant and founder of CUES Supplier member Envision Excellence LLC in the Washington, D.C., area. Her mission is to create exceptional cultures by teaching leaders how to be exceptional. Maddalena facilitates management and executive training programs and team-building sessions and speaks at leadership events. Prior to starting her business, she was an HR executive at a $450 million credit union. Contact her at 240.605.7940 or info@lauriemaddalena.com