Tips for Personal Accountability at Work

Do you constantly worry about the outcomes of your work, even when you give your best effort? While positive results are definitely anticipated, the possibility of handling unfavourable consequences can be challenging. For instance, you work late on an important task, and the internet goes down. Will you give up and place blame elsewhere? Or will you take personal accountability to turn things around? Which path would you follow?

If you are eager to know the best way to hold yourself accountable for your actions, thereby making the most of your career, read this till the end!

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Getting Started with Personal Accountability

In simple words, personal accountability indicates taking responsibility for your own actions, accepting the consequences and reflecting on them. Professionally, this means that while taking up tasks, you prioritise them, work on their completion and take total responsibility for the outcomes.

To understand personal accountability at work, imagine your manager providing you with tasks to complete. After assigning them based on priority, you start putting in your best efforts to complete the tasks. Just when you begin with one of the most important ones, you receive a personal call with an emergency. What would you do in such a situation?

A personal accountability coach, in this scenario, would suggest you do the following.

Inform your manager: Let them know of any potential delays and try requesting an extension.
Prioritise your tasks: Once an extension is approved, rearrange the task priorities and the timeline.
Seek help from colleagues: Your fellow colleagues may be able to cover for you. Remember to be polite.
Reflect on your situation: Once the problem is managed, identify areas you could have better prepared for during emergencies.

These steps, though seemingly simple on paper, might actually look tricky in real scenarios. But you can be a pro at personal accountability by using the following tip.

The Art of Being Accountable: Tips for Personal Accountability

No matter the task or the number of projects you are responsible for, there are a few ways by which you can always ensure personal accountability. Some of the best techniques for enhancing personal accountability include:

Take the first step: Forming a habit of personal accountability takes time. But the first step and consistent efforts matter the most.
Goal setting: Understand the deadline, the task, and the expectations from you and create a goal accordingly.
Communicate clearly: If there are any reasonable inquiries or inhibitions on your side, ensure you convey the same to your superiors.
Do not jump between tasks: Ensure you complete one task perfectly before jumping on to another.
Reward yourself: Reward yourself for reaching both short-term and long-term goals. Taking a leisure break, trip, or social media can be a few ways of rewarding oneself.
Progress Tracking: Keep note of the milestones you achieve, the hurdles or challenges faced and the lesson learnt.
Establish an accountability partner: This can be a family or a friend who will ensure you are always on track and ready to motivate you during your lows.

The techniques mentioned above, if put into action, will result in a substantial boost in your work management skills over a while. Now that you know how to improve your accountability, let’s also discuss the benefits of personal accountability in life.

Benefits of Personal Accountability

Incorporating accountability as a personal value can help you professionally and in your personal life. This is because being accountable for your actions brings in benefits, such as:

Growth Mindset: Once you start taking responsibility for your actions, you start treading on the path that positively affects your growth in all spheres of life
Self-awareness: Consistent reflections on one’s actions and thoughts helps one gain greater self-awareness
Enhanced decision-making: Since you are now more aware and systematic in your approach, you can notice visible transformations in your decision-making skills.
Improved performance: the quality of personal accountability is directly proportional to performance at work.
Stress control: Knowing that you aren’t acting out of a self-deprecating or situation-blaming mindset helps eliminate feelings of victimisation.

Endnotes

Striding on the path towards personal accountability is a demanding task. But you can improve gradually with the right efforts, mindset, and willingness to learn from mistakes. Furthermore, a good coach can take you through this journey and become your most reliable guide.

This is where an experienced and professional coach like Darren Finkelstein, aka ‘The Accountability Guy,’ can help you reach your goals. The Accountability Guy will help you find the right strategies for executing your several tasks and also help you reach your desired objectives. All this while making you discover ‘How Accountable You Are.’

If you are seeking clarity on ‘What to do First?’, ‘What to Do Next?’ and ‘Know what to do More Of’, then book your free accountability assessment session with Darren Finkelstein.

The best way forward is to seek professional guidance and set things right. Are you ready to do that?