In a coaching relationship, one of the most important aspects is accountability between the coach and coachee. A coach can be your accountability partner in meeting your goal, however big or small: you can check back in with a coach to let them know how your goal went.
Like all aspects of coaching, accountability is geared towards learning and personal development: your coach isn’t there to monitor and reprimand you, but to offer you the space to reflect on what happened when you tried (or didn’t try!) to meet your goal. Often our most insightful learning comes from actions we did not take: what is holding us back? What do we really want to do? How might we need to think about the goal differently?
Accountability is most successful when the client’s goal or action towards a goal is clearly defined: what have you decided to do? What is the client agreeing to be accountable for? What role is the coach playing in holding the space for accountability? How will this create the conditions for success?
Most importantly, how can we treat accountability as an opportunity for non-judgemental learning? What new options might emerge if we weren’t afraid of negative consequences? How might we look at things in a different way? What successes might we identify in our choices? What new paths might open to us?
Caitlin E McDonald 