Business Development Accountability:

It’s a common problem.

You plan your business development activities for the next quarter.

You may discuss it internally with your partners or with your marketing colleagues or even with external parties.

Everybody involved shows his and her commitment. Commitment to make it happen!

Great.

The end of the quarter arrived, but very little of the business development activities actually got accomplished.

Now, before you get annoyed, please understand that I am not complaining.

I am not even suggesting that you or any of your colleagues are lazy or should not be trusted. Not at all.

In fact, they may be all highly responsible members of the team.

But do you see the problem?

The problem is that no one was actually accountable for making sure the initiatives were complete.

It’s a common problem.

Many professional in fact aware of it and admit it.

As mentioned in earlier blogs, professionals, rightly, place a growing emphasis on business development to cope with an increasingly competitive market.

But, the extent to which professionals are held accountable for engaging in business development activities remains problematically low.

In the Spring of 2016, The Ackert Advisory conducted a market-wide study examining law firm business development (BD) challenges in a changing market.

The first survey question asked respondents which were the biggest challenges with business development at their firms,

The results indicate that there are top two challenges by a wide margin.

The first challenge is a lack of accountability for lawyers to engage in business development activities.

And the second is the failure by lawyers to prioritize business development activities.

Lack of Accountability appears to be the main business development problem facing many professionals and professional firms.

The good news is that this problem in internal problem – an actual behavioural challenge.

In other words, this problem is not a result of market conditions, timing or any other external forces.

Thus, in my opinion, easier to SWITCH and change (as I done successfully with many of the professionals I work with globally).

 

ACCOUNTABILITY – DEFINITION

 

The first question I want to take away from your way is – what is the difference between ‘Accountability’ and ‘Responsibility’?

In my humble opinion, the difference is simple.

Many people can be responsible for helping out on a business development activity or initiative.

But accountability belongs only to one person.

This is the person who will be judged on the completion of the specific business development activity.

So, let me ask you a question: how is the issue of personal business development accountability viewed in your practice? 

During my experience as a professional, I saw my share of finger-pointing, dishonesty, and failures due to lack of accountability. 

However, personal business development accountability is a critical step towards improving the results of your business development activity. 

When professionals get accountable for their business development own decisions, activities, and results, the effectiveness of the business development of the practice can greatly increase.

I believe that one of the greatest issues in business development accountability is connected directly to the amount of control, professionals actually possess in their work/practice.

When a professional is in control of the what, when, and how of a business development activity, the direct results is a high level of business development accountability.

On the other hand, when others in the firm are in control of the business development activity and how it should be implemented, accountability of the specific professional significantly decreases.

Here is the (known) secret of the most effective professional firms in business development: the firms have teams where everyone feels they have influence.

Let me repeat it in different words:

When professionals (like any other human!) feel like their voice is heard, their investment in their practice increases far more than when they’re being told what to do and exactly how to do it.

You see, business development accountability comes from within. It is not something you, as a professional, are given, you have to choose it to own it.

Now you probably understand why it is hard to find truly accountable professionals.

And it is even more difficult to select them in advance, as part of the recruitment process.

But since it is an internal thing, an actual behavioural challenge, it is easy to acquire the relevant skills.

As a matter of fact, this one of the important points I take care of, during my business development internal training, I conduct within professional firms [I will be happy to help your practice…]

Intuitively, some professionals might think that demanding accountability, letting others within the firm make the decisions or giving pep talks would make the difference.

Wrong.

My experience with many of the professional firms I worked with is that none of these tactics works very well

So to help you, my dear reader, I gathered from all exceptional professionals, I work with, eight business development behaviours, that were linked to high personal accountability.

Let me share them with you in short.

[Of course, if you have any questions, you are very welcome to get in touch.]

 

Skill #1: take responsibility.

Do you remember your reaction, at a time that somebody forced you to be responsible for a task?

Maybe it was your last boss or your partner (to some of you it was your mother or your teacher).

I assume many of you were annoyed. I was.

When responsibility is forced upon people they can often be resistant or even resentful.

If you want to be highly accountable professional, you need to be willing to take on responsibility for your business development activity by yourself.

You have to make sure once the business development initiative written under your name, no one else need to worry about its completion.

 

Skill #2: Be proactive & Prepare in advance

In any business developments project, some obstacles occur.

That is common.

But advance and proper planning is a way to avoid many of them.

To become highly accountable professional you need to work proactively, in advance, with proper preparation with the team (if do not have any, do it by yourself).

You have to do for every business development activity, you chose to be accountable for.

You can’t wait for others and definitely do not play a defensive role as a victim.

 

Skill #3: Solve problems.

Many times I saw professionals get into an argument and blaming each other within the firm of unsuccessful business development activity.

Purely waste of time and energy.

To become better accountable of your business development activity learn to stop blaming others.

Use such a situation to see what worked, what didn’t and learn how to solve the problem.

This is the only certain way to get better results from your business development activities and be acceptable.

 

Skill #4: Control your emotions

We all know that feelings and emotions can be a real obstacle for a successful business development activity.

To develop a winning business development accountability you need to control your emotion and feelings.

You need to learn to attack each problem at its core.

Nobody can influence your feelings including external circumstances or other people’s feelings.

The more you control your feelings, the more productive you become, the better the results from your business development activity.

 

Skill #5: Appreciate the time.

Needles to mention that time is money.

Not only your time but also the time of other people.

If you want to become more accountable professional, you need to appreciate the time.

In other words, you got to understand that every business development project has a time value.

Being on time, taking the relevant action you promise to do on time, serve you, as a professional, for the long term.

Thus, every business development activity you take serves a purpose and need to be completed on time!

 

Skill #6: Be clear.

I assume you agree that when you have a vague business development idea, it is hard to take any action.

Vagueness leads to inactivity.

In many professional firms, professionals are often chasing multiple rabbits and they don’t catch any of them.

How can you expect people to be accountable if you aren’t absolutely clear about your practice’s vision for where you’re going and what needs to be accomplished?

Clearly, you can’t.

To be successful in your accountability, you need to strive for being clear for yourself and for others, at all times.

For me learning to think carefully and realistically about a business development activity, what needs to be done and when always create creative answers.

Clarity helps to get the business development project to a successful end.

 

Skill #7: Do not expect praise.

Accountability is not depended on compliments or words of praise.

Of course, if you bring a business development activity to a successful end, you may get praise.

Nothing wrong with it.

But you as professional should not get your satisfaction from the praise you may get.

Successful accountable professional get their satisfaction from delivering and finalizing business development activity on time, on budget and with a great team.

 

Skill #8: Collaborate.

I always quoted being said – there is nothing in life you can do without the help of other people.

Business development activity is no different.

Being a master of one or a jack-of-all-trades in today’s professional business development world does not bring about success if you are unable to work as part of a team.

Create a shared environment in which the collective skills and resources around you can be used and contribute to the overall business development project.

This requires being able to tell, ask, and listen to others.

Without the ability to effectively use all the resources, you could delay the success of developing, formulating and implementing new and innovative business development ideas.

The ability to problem solve is reduced, as well as the attainment of business development goals and objectives, in turn, limiting the efficiency and effectiveness of growing a successful business development for your practice is hindered.

 

Bonus: Act with honesty and integrity.

Accountability is closely connected to honesty and Integrity.

When somebody in your team asks you, “how’s that project coming?” do you honestly reply, “I am behind my planning” or “pretty good?or… 

Those professionals who are accountable have the courage, to tell the truth.

Make sure to be one of them.

 

LAST WORD.

On the long personal and business development “to do” list of your practice, accountability should be at the top of the list.

If you see a fatal flaw in yourself or your current team members or colleagues on any of these eight points, you should address it immediately.

In fact, the single greatest way to leverage business development accountability is to pick a few of these key skills and behaviours to work on yourself.

Why?

The research is clear on this issue: great accountability in the business development of your practice begins with YOU!

Which skill are you planning to implement in the coming month to gain more business development success in your practice?