I’ve been thinking a lot lately about accountability. I know for myself and the people I choose to surround myself with, there are so many things we want to do that it’s sometimes difficult to know what to do first, why we’re doing it, what we already know how to do vs. what we need help/training/coaching on, and how to stay on track and get it done.
As a Professional Career Coach, I am a big believer in ongoing training, education, development, and coaching. I read books, take classes, network with amazing people, participate in interesting forums, and I personally work with a coach, Ann Strong of Thriving Coaches. She helps me to stay on track, move forward with digestible steps, yet also stretches me gently beyond my comfort zone and shines light on the areas I can’t see because I’m the one “in it”.
Somehow, when I tell her I will do something (I take on ‘homework’ in between our coaching sessions), it gets done! I have really accelerated the results in my business in this way. The funny thing is that I know I’m ultimately accountable and responsible to myself but putting a ‘stake in the ground’, saying it out loud to someone else whom I respect (and invest in!) and assigning a date to it… gets it done.
I started wondering what other areas of my life need more accountability. For example, I know that I would like to be exercising more and eating differently/better. But I’m not really doing it. I make some progress but then backslide, stall out, and then get overwhelmed. I wonder why this area seems so ‘easy’ for some people and difficult for others.
So, if apply my methods of success in my career coaching business to this area of my life, I know it’s time to get accountable to someone… so I did it. I mean, I know what to do: how to exercise, my exercise options, why building lean muscle mass is important, why eating healthier matters, and so on. But I wasn’t doing it until I held myself accountable to myself through someone else. I invested in myself to break the big goal into digestible steps, to get clear on why it’s ultimately important to me, to know what success will look like, to examine what may be holding me back and to clear it, to have another perspective, and to ultimately get it done and taken care of thereby fulfilling another goal and dream.
The dictionary defines the word accountable as this:
-adjective: subject to the obligation to report, explain, or justify something; responsible; answerable.
It sounds so serious yet it pretty much sums it up. So, my questions for you are this… How do YOU stay accountable in your life? In your career? In your job search? etc. What do you need to put in place to create more accountability to yourself so your goals and dreams become reality?
If I can help you to get accountable, stay on track, stretch and grow towards your career and/or job search goals, please let me know. You can check out your options here:
And please comment!
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
K,
Well written. To answer your question, how do I stay accountable? I’ve been self-employed for 30 years. Ran a studio, ran a co-op, do business with a variety of vendors. I must be accountable to these or else I’m not in business. I trained myself to become highly self-motivated and like you I attend workshops, seminars, etc. to keep a leg up….
At this new stage of my career and life, being a great dad to my 10 year-old is how I am accountable today. I want him to remember his childhood as fun, challenging, filled with love and new experiences. I am good at choosing targets and working to hit those targets, no matter what comes up or tries to get in the way….
I will succeed because I want to succeed, it’s on me and nobody else. Others may provide support but it always comes down to the individual. And the more you know yourself the more you know what you need to function and what you need to be accountable.
For me it is simple and direct, either do it or don’t and don’t blame others for your lack of effort.
Michael
The only person you can really be accountable to is yourself, and yet, as you point out, humans have an amazing capacity to delude themselves. Richard Pryor illustrates our ability to lie to ourselves in a routine where he is telling himself how great he is for not smoking crack while at that same moment he is lighting his crack pipe.
In a writing class I took a few years ago, students paired up with one another and committed to writing 400 words a day (not so much) and sending it to their partner. The commitment paid off – writers can do anything to talk themselves out of writing, so having a deadline, and knowing that someone was waiting for you really helped. It helps to set goals that are achievable, to have a partner, and to simply DO IT.
Kelly,
I think this is one reason I thrive in a sales environment – there are always sales quotas to make and resources to shepard. The results of your efforts are ever present and transparent. When things are going well and you’re beating targets the thrill and pride in achievement is palpable and rewards/ recognition are directly tied to achieving performance. When business is down, it’s time to rally and inspire members of the sales team to rmeet the challenge with everyone doing the best that they can. Everyone is accountable and no one less so, than the boss who is accountable to inspire and lead the team and meet organizational business commitments.
Now, you make a great point – can those attributes be applied to the many steps and facets of the job search/optimization process?
I certainly think so…..
Regards,
Paul
Kelly,
My thoughts on accountability and responsibility from an organizational perspective…
Accountability is driven at the action level which drives clarity real fast. Responsibility is the level of outcome from a set of actions. We need to develop a better understanding within an organization on these terms as part of becoming generative beings. If you don’t like the circumstance, look at where you are at. We become generative beings through coaching and leadershipping and this helps us move to an “at stake” vs. an “at risk” environment…and to a future that we aspire to.
Charlie
Kelly – Great perspective. We should all take responsibility for our Careers or find the tools/resources to get us where we want to be. Thanks for the great advice and words of encouragement. Anotei
Kelly,
In my mind, the most important thing a person has is their good name and their credibility. One reinforces these items by being accountable and responsible. I have managed people for over 30 years, so in addition to being accountable to our clients and the board, I was also accountable to my teams. Because my teams saw this in everything I did, they embraced the challenge and always delivered. I also knew if I made sure they had theirs first, I would eventually get mine. I held them to a higher standard, which is the same one I hold myself to. The magic formula? Discipline! Discipline yourself and apply it to your professional as well as your personal life and the rest of these items will become its product.
Steve
Hi Kelly,
I’m a researcher and consultant who studies self-organizing work groups. The groups I’ve studied demonstrate individuals having difficulty on their own, finding another who they believe can help them (and those who matter most to them), and starting to talk to that person and move in the same general direction together. Often a third, fourth, and/or fifth person joins as well. In these groups, people could be more of their whole (often messy) selves at work, and as such, they could see more and do more than they could on their own. The things we strive for (and on some days fail at) as individuals–discipline, responsibility, and accountability, for example–increased for people in these groups, almost as a side effect of working in this collective way. People in these groups went above and beyond the call of duty for the others–giving each other a pat on the back or a kick in the pants on the days when they needed it.
I’ve been so amazed by what I’ve seen study these groups (and in their impacts on group members, nearby others, and their organizations as a whole) that now I strive to work this way–as part of self-organizing groups. For me this started at work, but it spills over into the rest of life as well.
Lori
Lori – What interesting work! Thanks for your thoughtful comments. I look forward to learning more about your research.
K,
Well written. To answer your question, how do I stay accountable? I’ve been self-employed for 30 years. Ran a studio, ran a co-op, do business with a variety of vendors. I must be accountable to these or else I’m not in business. I trained myself to become highly self-motivated and like you I attend workshops, seminars, etc. to keep a leg up….
At this new stage of my career and life, being a great dad to my 10 year-old is how I am accountable today. I want him to remember his childhood as fun, challenging, filled with love and new experiences. I am good at choosing targets and working to hit those targets, no matter what comes up or tries to get in the way….
I will succeed because I want to succeed, it’s on me and nobody else. Others may provide support but it always comes down to the individual. And the more you know yourself the more you know what you need to function and what you need to be accountable.
For me it is simple and direct, either do it or don’t and don’t blame others for your lack of effort.
Michael