Personal Accountability in Business

What is it? Why do you need it?

Personal accountability will impact and change all aspects of your life for the better.

Early in my printing career, I was still trying to figure out this whole sales thing. I landed a small account with a tech company where I was printing business cards and brochures for them–wasn’t a big project. They were never really going to be a big client.

At the time, I didn’t know what it was like to work with a client from idea to creation–from print to production to evolution.

We printed the job for the client and I never took proofs to them so they could approve the artwork before we finalized it. I simply went to my company and said, “Here’s the artwork,” they set it up to go through the printing press, and we printed it.

Why am I telling you this?

Well, what I had no knowledge of was that in setting up the final graphics, our designer had mistakenly moved one of the images around and covered up a couple of words. We had already printed the final brochure and delivered it to the client.

Before I get into my full explanation–full disclosure–I was young, ignorant, dumb, and didn’t know any better.

So the client calls me up and says, “what the hell is this?!” He wants me to come by his office and he wants to show me what he’s looking at and why he’s pissed. So I drove over there. I didn’t know how this mistake happened and I basically told the guy, “Look, either my art department screwed something up or you guys gave us a bad file.”

That made the guy RED in the face…I’m talking full-blown tomato.

He shows me the email he sent me originally and there was nothing wrong with the artwork on his end. Again, young and dumb, I didn’t know what he wanted me to do about it. We already delivered the final piece to them.

I made my way back to the office, spoke to my boss, and explained the situation. I told her what I said to the client about how our art department probably screwed it up. My boss? Now she is red in the face. For different reasons, yeah…less-so anger, but still…oh boy.

She goes, “Let me teach you a lesson about life in business. People will never forgive a company for making a mistake, but they’ll always forgive an individual. And if you ever throw one of our staff under the bus again, saying they screwed up without taking ownership of it yourself, then we’re going to have a significantly harsher conversation than we’re having now.”

Wow.

I probably deserved a smack in the back of the head for the way I handled the situation. My boss was dead on. And I was dead wrong. But I’m ever-grateful for the lesson and as you can see, it’s one that I’ve carried with me ever since.

We have so much going on from an entrepreneurial standpoint. As someone just starting out, you don’t have anyone you can blame. You have no choice but to figure out how to right the wrong and take accountability for it. It’s a huge lesson that a lot of entrepreneurs are forced to learn quickly in order to survive in this climate.

The Bottom Line: I’m not the guy who’s going to say, “the customer’s always right.” I’ve never believed in that. But when it’s time to step up, it’s crucial that you own your mistakes. Don’t throw others under the bus. It’s not weak to admit when you’re wrong. Weakness is the inability to admit when you’re wrong.

Let’s go break shit. It’s one of our mottos!

Not to say I’m perfect at righting my wrongs–there’s always room to improve–but I have definitely gotten better at identifying my mistakes.

When something goes haywire, look within. Talk it through. And finally, apply lessons-learned so this sort of thing doesn’t happen in the future.

I firmly believe that throwing someone under the bus gets you and your business nowhere.

Drawing inspiration from the lesson from young-me above…I’d much rather have a client come at me. They’ll forgive me before they’d ever forgive Success Champions.

Personal accountability, everyone. It’s a necessity. Nobody is mistake-proof.

Most people won’t do the work. That, or they’re doing the wrong work.

Yep, it’s true. There’s only one way to build your business. It’s to work.

I’ve done the calls, the reach-outs, all of it. Personal accountability plays a huge role in these because you have to tell yourself you’re going to do something. And then you have to do it. If I tell myself I’m going to do 20 cold calls today, and then I don’t do them, is that okay? Of course not! And this applies to so many different facets of a company.

When you’re lacking personal accountability in the realm of just going out there and doing it, you’re working backwards. You’re digging yourself into a hole and getting your business into trouble.

It’s not just for big businesses. It’s entrepreneurs, start-ups, and small business owners. When they think they’re busy and being productive…and they’re simply being neither.

This can be a huge missing piece for business owners–knowing what the priority is and where to focus your time. Do the external things that are going to push your business forward!

Where should you be accountable? That’s entirely up to you. But it starts now. The mentality is right now. It’s tomorrow. It’s next week. It’s next year. And it continues and carries into the next ground-breaking idea you have.

We’ve all heard the quote: “Personal accountability is doing what you say you would do, even when nobody is watching.”

That’s the best way to look at it. No eyeballs on you. No expectations but you’re own. And you still have to put the work in.

Finding the mindset

As a fear-motivated individual, I will move faster for fear than I will for pleasure.

A prime example: I almost lost my farm while building my business.

Everything got to the point where it got so dark, that I had no choice but to win. What kept me pushing forward was the idea that if people saw that I failed. What would they think of me? Also, what would I think of myself? Did I put in every breath and ounce of energy I had to make sure that didn’t happen? Maybe it’s not the best method, but it’s a massive motivator for me. And guess what? I kept my farm. I built my business.

To all readers and listeners, please do us and yourself a favor and ask yourself one thing: What is your major fear that is scarier than doing the actual thing you should be doing?

No matter what form your fears of failure come to you in, convert them into fuel for your successes. Where does it begin? Personal accountability. Start by looking within.

If you find yourself not taking personal accountability in the things that their business requires for growth?

Change. Evolve. You have to reflect on what isn’t working and how you’re spending your time. And once you figure out where or why things are plateauing, you have to take immediate action. Make the shift and carry that momentum.

Repetition, whether it generates the result you’re looking for or not, is better than not stepping up or reflecting at all.

It’s okay that you screwed something up, but what are you going to do to fix it and make sure it doesn’t happen a second time? Act.

As always, ladies and gents…if you’ve got any tips or tricks of value out of this podcast and blog, do us a favor, and make sure you’re subscribed to our channel! Become one of our Champions, share our movement with just one friend, and join our voice! Visit SuccessChampionNetworking.com & email us at: [email protected]

Donnie Boivin is the Founder and CEO of the Success Champion Networking, a 4x best-selling author and host of the Growth Mode Podcast.

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