I am writing this blog post thanks to the power of a peer accountability call. As a coach, my mission is to help others maximize their potential and achieve their definitions of success. I am driven to make an impact and I know sharing my thoughts and ideas in a blog can help an audience larger than my individual coaching clients. There is no lack of desire when it comes to blogging but there is a lack of execution. Why? I haven’t built a blogging habit yet, I fear being judged for my content and Netflix’s superpower is creating binge worthy content (have you seen Good Girls?)

In order to set myself up for success and to motivate me to keep taking steps to achieve my goals, I keep a weekly peer accountability call. My peer is a dear friend. We’ve been friends for somewhere around 15 years (the exact moment our friendship was established escapes both of us) and are both in the first year of launching, running and living our businesses. We both left corporate roles with good incomes, high comfort and predictability to ride this rollercoaster of entrepreneurship. We do not serve the same clients and are not in the same industries. This is done by design! I want feedback on growing my business from someone who is also growing a business but can offer a different perspective.

If you are looking to grow yourself or take your business to the next level here is how you can set up peer accountability calls. 

1. Identify your accountabilabuddy! This should be someone you are excited to connect with weekly and are open to sharing the good, bad and ugly. Honesty is key! There should be a desire in your heart to follow through and avoid disappointment. In other words, if you care deeply about this person and don’t want to let him or her down then you are on the right track. You should pick someone that is a peer! A mentor is someone ahead of you that can teach you how to get to where you want to go. A peer is in the grind with you!
2. Schedule your calls. My peer accountability calls used to be on Fridays to debrief the week, but we switched to Mondays in 2020 and I love it! I use these calls to identify my priorities and set commitments for the week ahead. It’s the perfect way to jump back into the work week. The calls are set on repeat each Monday with no end date. We adjust as needed but having them on the calendar means we are much more likely to keep the momentum. These calls work when you are consistently keeping the calls.
3. Plan your call agenda. It can be tempting to turn these calls into social re-connects. After a brief catch up, we dive into business. We rotate who shares first based on who has a pressing business problem to solve or win to celebrate. Just getting started? I recommend rotating who shares first each week. Our call format includes – share wins, discuss challenges, review last week’s commitments and set new commitments for the week. There is no shame in our game. If one of us doesn’t fulfill a commitment, we work to understand why and discuss ways to avoid the same outcome in the future. Neither one of us are perfect but we are here to support and challenge with care. 
4. Expect your relationship to evolve over time. Our peer accountability calls started as monthly goals calls and evolved into weekly calls when we both left our corporate jobs to build businesses. Having the foundation of friendship and understanding of one another’s goals makes these weekly calls incredibly meaningful and the most important meeting of my week.