The Observer's Notebook

Accountability coaching only works when the plan is right. Here's why most founders don't need more discipline — they need a structural diagnosis first. The first time I heard about accountability coaching, I was driving to work listening to The Heidi and Frank Show. Someone on the segment described what an accountability coach did, and I remember thinking, I could do that. I keep everyone around me accountable. I'd be great at that. It took years to understand why that thought was the problem, not the qualification. Accountability is the most oversold product in the coaching industry. It gets packaged as the thing you're missing. The reason you haven't hit your numbers. The reason the launch fizzled, the offer didn't convert, the revenue plateaued. Hire someone to hold you accountable, the logic goes, and the results will follow. Sometimes that's true. More often, accountability is what founders reach for when they don't want to look at the actual probl...