Swim with a Buddy

I’ve always been great at taking on big difficult assignments and getting them done. On more than one occasion, I’ve been handed responsibility for a failing product launch and shipped in months what the previous team couldn’t ship in years.

When I make a promise to my customers, my team, my boss and our company, I will keep that promise, no matter what. As an executive, I’ve always been relentless about my commitments, driving myself and my teams hard to deliver on our promises.

Yet, I often don’t keep promises to myself.

This distinction became apparent when I was thinking about my coaching session this morning. We had our first session on Monday and then met this morning for a check in. I got a ton done this week — definitely more than usual. I suspect it’s because I knew I had a check-in with my coach and didn’t want to fail to keep my promises.

So why were the promises to my coach more important to keep than the promises to myself?

It’s not because I’m a people pleaser. No one who knows me or worked with me would say that.

I am a person of integrity and principle. My word matters. When I make a promise to someone and they’re counting on me, I will deliver.

Having a coaching session scheduled with deliverables that needed to be executed by a certain date helped focus my mind on what I needed to get done this week. I wasted less time on social media and more time producing output. It’s been a good investment.

So here’s what I learned today: Having someone I trust and respect hold me accountable to keep my promises is a valuable tool. Whether it’s an executive coach, an accountability partner, a mastermind or something else, if you have big goals, create a system of accountability.

Keep going…

Love,

Coco