We are faced with decisions in our professional careers, at home and within our communities that challenge our judgment and affect the environment around us. As our shoulders bear a considerable amount of weight, our minds begin to make decisions with haste to alleviate immediate stressors. Unfortunately, swift resolutions can result in undesirable repercussions and we do not hold ourselves accountable for our actions. Instinctively, we fear the immediate response to our conduct instead of considering the long-term effect of neglecting our responsibilities. Accountability and responsibility are essential in self-development and create an environment of respect and reliability.
How Do You Define Accountability
Accountability is the willingness to answer to the decisions you make and claim responsibility for your actions.
Why Accountability is Important
Without accountability, civilizations would crumble. If we neglected accountability and responsibility, no one would be expected to face any significant consequence. Trust in ourselves, our families and community leaders would cease to exist. Accountability is essential to a fully-functioning society and it establishes a sense of trust in all of our relationships. Focusing on improving accountability will open doors.
- You will establish an honest work environment with your employer and coworkers
- Friends learn to rely on you instead of shying away
- Your community trusts you to make honorable decisions
- You can trust your leaders to make decisions
- You are inspired to become someone your family can turn to and depend on in every situation
- You can influence others around you to hold themselves accountable for their actions and decisions
Self Assessment of Accountability
Everyone has passed the blame a time or two, but some people need a little more help identifying the need for concentrated development. It’s important to evaluate the decisions you make now, or have made in the past, to determine if you require focused attention.
- Do you redirect blame to someone else or an outside force?
- Do you set goals for yourself and stick to them?
- Are you someone people can trust?
- Do you forgo the truth out of fear of retaliation?
- Do you miss important dates because you are bombarded with an unmanageable load?
- Can you confidently stand up and confess, “It was me”, then face the impact of your actions?
Time for Change
If you stumbled through the above questions, it’s time to look within yourself and identify the obstacles keeping you from accepting responsibility in your life. Now that you know what accountability looks like, you have the power to change your life. Make the commitment to yourself as your first step toward accountability and responsibility.
Utilize Professional Development Strategies
Professional development tools and strategies are available to assist you in adopting respectable habits into your life. Enlisting the help of 360 degree feedback will empower you to make significant changes in everyday situations. 360 degree feedback is a method of measuring your strengths and weaknesses regarding various competencies such as accountability. Once you have identified your vulnerability through 360 degree feedback, you will be able to develop a personalized development plan to become a new-found leader.
Interested in carrying out your own free 360 degree feedback?
SelfStir.com offers you a powerful set of tools that can help jumpstart (and sustain you on) your leadership developmental journey. Simply put, SelfStir offers you a comprehensive 360-degree feedback, a self-assessment and personal developmental tool that you can use over and over again, free of charge!
SelfStir.com – Making feedback fun