How to Practice Personal Accountability
The Answer to the Question is: "Me!"
The answer to the question should always be: “ME, I’ll do it”! And to explain exactly what I mean, let's start by describing what personal accountability is and is not.
Personal accountability is:
- Correcting issues without assigning blame.
- Taking action even when it is someone else’s responsibility.
- Volunteering instead of complaining.
- Stepping-up to challenges instead of watching challenges zip by and go onto someone else’s shoulders.
- Something that requires managerial courage instead of passive observation.
Personal Accountability is not:
- Playing victim to our situations.
- Deflecting responsibility and pointing to others, saying: “That’s not my job”.
- Looking for excuses and covering our tracks.
- Backstabbing others to make ourselves look better.
- Walking away when someone needs our help.
I’ve been in manufacturing for 40 years and I have to confess that I have been part of many complaint sessions over the years. Many of these negative conversations were with my coworkers as we discussed bad bosses, bad decisions, failed corporate plans and unfavorable policies. I’ve also had many teeth grinding thoughts during my daily commutes as negativity just swirled in my head.
Complaining about bad situations is just human nature perhaps, but I came to realize that not everyone engages in it. The most successful people I know actually don’t engage in it. And when I define success, I’m not talking about someone's ascent up the corporate ladder, but rather their ascent into a happier and more impactful life experience. The type of people I described as being value driven.
How Do We Practice Personal Accountability?
As a leader, this concept of personal accountability doesn’t mean you need to personally tackle every problem that comes your way. What it does mean, is that you evaluate the current state condition and you decide if it is acceptable the way it is or not. And if you decide that it is acceptable, then you accept it - in which case you no longer have any reason to complain. 
However, if you decide that the current state condition is unacceptable, then you decide to either fix it or ignore it. Either way you are in control of your own decision and circumstance. It is not someone else that is doing it to you. You are deciding to address it or not to address it. If you decide not to address an unacceptable situation, then you lose the right to complain about it.
If a current situation is unacceptable and you decide to work on a fix, you don’t need to fix it all on your own. As a leader, remember that you have positional power - which means that you can delegate some tasks. You also have influential power - which means you can influence others to help you on your quest for a solution. For example, you can influence your manager to spend money for a solution, or you can influence your team to help you jumpstart a new project.
Whatever issues you’re having - whether it is a lack of support or a broken system, too much paperwork or an unsupportive boss - just make the decision to not complain. Instead, decide if you can accept it as is or not. And if not, then identify an appropriate course of action. You’re in control of your own decisions.
Some people search for every small injustice so they can play victim to their circumstances. But we as leaders need to have a growth mindset and avoid victim mentality. We need to convert our complaints into decisions and actions. When we practice personal accountability we become the CEO of our own life, and life gets exponentially better.
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