Accountability as Personal Responsibility

What comes to mind when you think of accountability? For most of us, accountability is what happens when you do not perform as you should have and so your boss or manager says that "you have to be held accountable for your actions or lack of performance". Some of us have even had this conversation with team members or employees we manage. In this view, accountability is never something you own or have any control over, instead it is something enforced on you by someone else (manager, boss, parent, etc).

But the reality is that this interpretation is wrong - no one can hold anyone accountable, they can enforce the consequences for our actions or lack thereof, but that is very different from accountability. "Accountability is taking ownership, it's a character trait and a willingness to own your actions and results, regardless of the circumstances. Accountability is the realisation that you always have a choice," says author of the Twelve Week Year, Brian Moran.

This view of what accountability means resonates very deeply with me, it is also why external measures of accountability do not work for many people. Society's views on accountability partners, as an example, practically amount to me having an agreement with someone to keep reminding me of the stick I'm going to be beaten with (consequences) if I don't do what I'm supposed to do. In my view accountability is recognising that I am the master of my fate, I'm responsible (to myself, first) to do what I said I was going to do and ultimately I will own the consequences, good and bad, of recognising and accepting that responsibility.

One foundational element of personal accountability is that you need to care about the thing or action required. We take real responsibility for the things that mean a lot to us personally, so we have to see the link between the thing required of us at any moment and our bigger personal vision for our lives, jobs or businesses. I think this puts an additional responsibility on us to seek to create the work, relationships, etc, that we know are building blocks towards our greater life vision. Otherwise, work simply becomes a place we go to do stuff for people who pay us a salary. If we do well we get a bonus, if we do poorly - we suffer the consequences of that. Perhaps it is time we decide to be our own accountability partner and take control of what we do and why we do it.