How to create personal accountability

Picture of By Darren Finkelstein
By Darren Finkelstein

The Accountability Guy®

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You want to perform your best at work. The organisation wants you to perform your best at work. Surely, your bosses want you and them to give it your all when it comes to teamwork. But what I exactly mean by saying that you work your best is not only to meet your sales target or your daily goals to generate revenue for the organisation, but also to improve your behaviour when it comes to dealing with your subordinates, bosses, being responsible for your actions and decisions, and much more. That is personal accountability. That’s what the organisation also expects out of you as well, along with the revenues that you generate.

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What is personal accountability?

Personal accountability is more like taking responsibility for your actions and decisions and learning to be respectful and polite with people whom you work with. You work and improve your behaviour. You learn to accept your own faults. Instead of blaming someone else, you learn to feel empowered to take it as a personal responsibility to make decisions that you are capable of doing in your role. And if you have done something wrong, then you accept your mistakes and rectify the situation.

Why is personal accountability important?

You have an employee that is able to deliver 100% of the goals that the bosses have given to him, generating maximum revenue, but when it comes to team work, or behaving with people in the same way, it is considered rude. Because of that, you might notice that many people in his office do not respect him or his behaviour. So, it is not just about the work that the person does; it is about how the individual behaves in the office. If he was rude, would he go and apologise and fix the situation? Whether he will stand up for his actions or decisions, or simply blame it on someone else, because he is a star performer, remains to be seen. That’s why, in order to build a healthy environment in the office, personal accountability becomes the crucial part.

How can we create personal accountability at work?

There are behaviours that each and every person can work and improve on their personal accountability and, hence, create a healthy environment at work. Let’s have a look at the behaviour.

1. Recognize your role

Let’s start with the basic requirements for anyone at work is to understand the requirements that their job demands. You need to understand the tasks that they are required to do on a daily basis. If you were to work in a team, then you would have to understand your role in the team and even what others are responsible for.

2. Being Truthful

One of the important aspects is for you to be honest with everyone around you. Be honest about the opinions and feedback that you require your employees or subordinates to give you as you start working together as a team. Do not make excuses if you have not completed your task. Be honest and accept and ask for more time to complete your task.

3. Stop Pointing Fingers

If you have learned that you have made a mistake, learn to accept it instead of blaming it on others. If you understand, if you stand up for your own mistakes, then people will respect you for your responsibility.

4. Take charge

Yes, that’s correct! Take ownership if you made a decision or you did something that went well or went wrong. If you stand up for your own mistakes, then your seniors will respect you and even your juniors will respect you.

5. Be quick to apologise and make amends

If by mistake you said something or did something that could have repercussions, people would end up feeling bad. Then get up and be ready to apologise and think about how you can rectify the situation. That way, other members of your team would know that you respect them as well.

6. Be receptive to feedback

As a manager or as a group leader as well, it is important for you to listen to your teammates, seniors and juniors, as well. Listen to their feedback as well; understand that they might have a point that can help you improve as well. So, be open to feedback and changes.

7. Be outcome-driven

Therefore, work on your goals as every organisation is looking for a candidate who can deliver the desired results. Make sure that your teammates also understand what outcomes you are expecting from them too. It will help you and your team to achieve all the goals on time.

Final Thoughts

Personal accountability is the key aspect of any organisation’s success story. If all the employees working in the office respected each other and were happy at work, they would in fact produce more and more results. One has to lead by example. If you have an employee who genuinely practises personal accountability at work, then you show everyone how he works and make sure that everyone around him should do the same too.