Accountability

Accountability is a crucial and often misunderstood concept within groups, teams and organizations.

Accountability is recognizing and taking responsibility for your actions and their outcomes. The word itself can be transposed into “ability to account.”

When you are accountable you are able to account for the commitments you make and the actions you take. Being accountable is the opposite of assigning fault, blame or excuses.

Assess your level of accountability with these three checkpoints:

1.  I keep my commitments and do what I say I will do; I proactively manage expectations if something prevents me from keeping my commitment.
2.  I am responsible for the performance of my organization and I regularly meet with my team (or group!) to review our progress.
3.  I do what needs to be done in order to achieve results without blame, excuses or fault.

 The result of accountability is increased self-confidence, organizational performance radically improves and the level of engagement is higher. Essentially, accountability comes from taking ownership, following through and accepting the positive or negative consequences.