Top 10 Examples Of Accountability

Whether it is your personal or professional life, nothing can be accomplished to its fullest without the habit of accountability.

This is the one key element that helps glue all your hard work and efforts together to reach your goals. Being accountable means living a life of integrity with your words, thoughts and actions.

But don’t get it mixed with commitment or responsibility! Because accountability helps to ensure long-term success in your future and triumph over your little inner critic.

And while accountability might sound easy to follow, it is a habit that is difficult to achieve. But, it is still achievable. However, it might help if you first started with the definition of accountability and followed the ten best examples.

So, make sure to stick around until the very end of this feature!

HOW ACCOUNTABLE ARE YOU?

Discover your Accountability Score and increase the probability of smashing your GOALS and Getting Sh!t Done!

What Is Meant By Accountability?

When people come across the word “accountability”, they often picture themselves “getting caught” for doing something dicey, or ratting out other people, or even establishing a set of strict rules for people to follow.

This pessimistic idea of accountability often drives people to understand it as a toxic control culture through rules. However, there is a better way to put this.

Accountability (whether at home or work) is all about holding everyone at the same expectation level. You could be a top C-suite executive or a part-time employee who works by the hour; accountability will keep people of all positions at the same level and motivate them to accomplish the primary goal.

Undoubtedly, accountability at the workplace is critically important. However, the actual act of accountability starts from within. This is called personal accountability, which means taking responsibility for everything that happens in your life.

By fostering this habit in your life and workplace, you can get high-performance work to help you reach the top!

What Are Some Examples Of Accountability?

Listed below are a few excellent examples of being accountable:

You take responsibility for your shortcomings instead of blaming them on other people.
You are practising clear communication to those affected by your mistake and seeking transparent solutions from other people.
You take time for reflecting on your actions and mistakes and make an effort to learn from them intentionally.
You reach out to people to ask for help when it is needed the most.
You work on identifying a potential problem instead of running away from it or ignoring it.
You are taking steps to improve yourself rather than daydreaming and getting lost in your imagination.
You patiently examine a problem to see if you were responsible for it and take ownership of it and contribute to finding the right solution.
You come up with solutions for problems even if you did not cause them.
You forgive yourself for the mistakes you made.
You are constantly learning how to become a better individual.

Here is what accountability does NOT look like:

You ignore your problems and hope they will disappear on their own without recognizing them.
You are in denial of a problem.
You are always pointing fingers at the people around you and blaming others for your mistakes.
You take little to no steps for self-improvement.
You create a long list of reasons to state why the problem does not affect you.
You run away from your problems by avoiding phone calls and emails and drowning yourself in unhealthy behaviour like excessive drinking and eating, and watching TV.

How Can You Become More Accountable?

If you want to become more accountable to yourself, you need to devise your action plan. This differs from person to person; however, if you need a helping hand, feel free to follow this 9-step plan to becoming more accountable.

Start by identifying all your current objectives, tasks and goals.
Identify your role within the company and the society and spot your KPIs (Key Performance Indicators.
Sort out your goals based on the time it would take to achieve them. This way, you will have weekly, monthly, quarterly, half-yearly and annual goals.
Be conscious of the way you communicate with those around you. Fight the urge to blame others for your mistakes.
Have a mentor and set them as your prime example of accountability.
Talk about your concerns and start asking for help when you need it.
Whatever your tasks are, review them every day to ensure you are on the right track to meet deadlines on critical projects.
Talk to your mentor and share your experiences on handling your mistakes and how you can improve yourself.
Ask for suggestions and tips on what are the other courses of action you could take.

Parting Thoughts

While accountability might not be an easy practice to start, it can still do wonders for your life. By taking the right steps and following the examples mentioned earlier, you too can become a role model for accountability in no time!