What's Your Accountability Score?

Let’s talk accountability, shall we?

I am not sure what’s more difficult, holding yourself or others accountable.

Are you ready to get my take on it?

1. HOLD YOURSELF ACCOUNTABLE

What does this mean? It means that nobody else is responsible for the results in your life but you.

If you have a goal and/or want to deliver results, you have to find the drive and motivation to hold yourself accountable for your actions because they will become your results. Excuses are always available.

HERE IS WHAT IS IMPORTANT:

1. What’s the goal? If you don’t have a goal, you don’t know where you’re going;
2. Have the right mindset – why is it important for you to achieve what you want to achieve? If you know the “why”, the “how” becomes easy;
3. Make a plan – if you don’t have a plan, you will get lost in the process;
4. Have regular conversations with someone (your coach, mentor, business partner, wife, or friend) about your progress;
5. Have an accountability progress app – there are many applications. One of them is Monday (check it out); If you prefer old-school, you can use a simple excel sheet or a printed calendar; it has to have the task, priority, status, start date, due date and possibly the completion percentage;

2. HOLD YOUR TEAM MEMBERS ACCOUNTABLE

Don’t shoot the messenger but the worst behaviour you see within your team members is there because it is accepted and/or there are no consequences.

If this is difficult for you, you are not alone. Holding people accountable is one of the competencies that must be learned but I think a shift in our thought process is required.

Accountability shouldn’t be about punishing someone when things go wrong.

If we would pay more attention to character traits in our organizations, we would notice that accountability is a matter of integrity. 

It is about having integrity and feeling accountable to deliver a specific result.

You may be either too lax with your team members or you have developed into a micromanager because you didn’t find the time to develop your team members. Whatever it is, you can’t do the workload alone and lack of accountability can be super frustrating.

HERE IS WHAT YOU CAN DO:

1. Set clear expectations that set the tone – you get what you expect;
2. Discuss accountability and get everyone comfortable with the idea to hold each other accountable by helping and supporting each other;
3. Assume that people will do the best they can with the resources they have;
4. Establish trust and open communication – if people are afraid to tell you that they aren’t on track or that they need support, they will try to cover up and/or blame others;
5. Use mistakes as a stepping stone to learn and grow;
6. Make them part of the process by making sure your expectations are clear and listening to what they have to say;
7. What are the consequences? – If there are no consequences, people will keep doing what they are doing;

In conclusion, please don’t expect more from others than you can deliver yourself.

If there are accountability challenges on your team, what lesson can YOU learn from them? Is there a slight chance that you have areas in your life that lack personal accountability?

Just saying.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT:

Can it be true that accountability breeds responsibility?

Read this article in the Harvard Business Review:

The Right Way to Hold People Accountable

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