Ways To Increase Accountability – Tips and Tools

By Darren Finkelstein
By Darren Finkelstein

The Accountability Guy®

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Do you lack ownership skills? Do you fail to achieve your goals? Do you face issues at work? If yes, then you should focus on improving your accountability towards various things. How? Well, that is precisely what we are going to discuss in this article.

Improving personal accountability and taking responsibility for your actions will help you in several ways and has many benefits. You will become not only a better person but also a better professional. You will add value wherever you go, and you will feel more sorted in life.

Sounds appealing, right? Let’s start without further ado and become a more accountable individual.

What is Accountability?

Taking responsibility for your actions and ensuring that you do what you claim to do is what accountability means.

Personal accountability entails taking responsibility for the situations in which you’ve been involved. This entails accepting responsibility for the consequence, whether positive or negative and doing all possible to correct the problem.

It takes courage to be accountable, and imbibing this virtue isn’t all easy.

Why do You need to Increase Accountability?

Being accountable is going to help you in the long run. You will become more vigilant and responsible towards your action. And, thus you will become a better person.

If you are still not convinced, then here are some benefits of being an accountable person, have a look-

  1. You will become more responsible towards your goals.
  2. You will learn to stop blaming others and take ownership of your decisions.
  3. Lesser conflicts if you stop blaming.
  4. Your performance at work will improve.
  5. You will be able to measure your growth.

Ways to Increase Accountability

As mentioned earlier, being accountable for your actions is not easy, like a cakewalk. You will have to take baby steps, be patient and become more disciplined as an individual. There are a few ways in which you can give a head start to yourself in this journey of becoming accountable. Here are a few of them-

Time Yourself

If you want to become accountable, then you first need to spend time wisely. There would be times when you will find yourself spending more time on a task or work than you anticipated you would. We tend to procrastinate when there are no deadlines or if the deadlines are late. So, if you want to be spent the time wisely, try timing yourself. So, if you have a task at hand, first check how much time you will need to finish and then set a deadline for yourself.

Know Your Responsibility

You cannot become accountable if you don’t even know what to do or what your responsibilities are. Hence, it would help if you first jot down all the things that fall under your responsibility and then start taking ownership of what you do in that domain.

Be Honest with Yourself

It is easy to be honest with others than being honest with oneself. It takes courage to understand and acknowledge that you have made a wrong decision. You can only achieve what you want in life or at work by being honest with yourself.

So, if your goals are essential and if you want to become successful, set your pride aside and start being honest with yourself from today.

Say Sorry For your Actions

Saying sorry isn’t simple for many people; there are people who take it on their ego. And, such people never get what they desire. Moreover, fixing the mistake is not enough; you have to take responsibility for your action, and it best happens when you apologize. So, next time you recognize that you may have made a mistake, quickly apologize and try to fix the issue.

Be Flexible to Change

There could be times when you may fail to judge yourself, and that is when you will need a helping hand or someone who can tell where you are wrong. And, you will have to incorporate the changes they suggest. So, it is best to be open to change and constructive criticism.

Start With Short Term Goals

If you face issues in setting and sticking to long-term goals, start breaking down your long-term goal into multiple short-term goals. In this way, you will not only set a realistic deadline for your purpose, but you will also be able to focus on each step towards it without burning yourself out.

Incentivize your Achievements

It is one of the best ways to stick to your goals. It is a simple process wherein your reward yourself every time you finish a target or achieve a goal. The reward could be anything, be it a coffee at Starbucks or a new pair of jeans or some free time.

Conclusion

When you’re personally accountable, you take responsibility for the consequences of your decisions and actions. You will become a better person and a better employee at the same time.

So, now that you know some fantastic ways to become accountable, start your journey today.