How Do You Create Personal Accountability in Your Life?

December 15, 2019

So it is almost time to do my end of quarter reflection. Did you achieve your goals or intentions that you set yourself this past quarter? I sincerely hope so! If not, maybe next quarter it is time to join create greater personal accountability? However, before I how you might create personal accountability in your life, let me share what personal accountability is!

What is Personal Accountability?

I see personal accountability is an ongoing habitual commitment to yourself and what is important to you through –

continually choosing to consciously take ownership for your life (i.e. commitment),
taking responsibility through choices / actions and removing the blocks (for example: faulty thinking or excuses), and
holding yourself accountable for your results (the “good” and the “not so good or the wanted and not wanted).

A few years ago, I came across the book The 85% Solution: How Personal Accountability Guarantees Success – No Nonsense, No Excuses by Linda Galindo. In the book, Linda focuses on three similar key elements of personal accountability:

Personal responsibility is a “before-the-fact” mind-set of personal ownership and commitment to a result (page 58),
Self-empowerment is taking the actions – and the risks – that you need in order to ensure that you achieve the results you desire (page 147), and
Being accountable for your results requires an “after-the-fact” mindset of being willing to answer for the outcomes resulting from your choices, behaviors, and actions (page 225).

Marcia Rachel who has written about accountability in the medical field indicates there are a number of different definitions of accountability and each of them involve five key ideas –

Obligation – a duty that usually comes with consequences,
Willingness – taking action because we want to, not because we have to,
Intent – the purpose behind a plan or desired outcome,
Ownership – having power or control over something, and
Commitment – dedicating ourselves to the task or goal at hand.

The Different Types of Accountability

When it comes to accountability, I think there are many different types as we are in many different relationships. Firstly, there is personal accountability (which I have identified above). Then, there is couch / mentor accountability, peer accountability, group / team accountability and organisational accountability.

Coach / Mentor Accountability –

Coach / Mentor accountability is when you have a coach, mentor or supervisor who you share your goals and intentions with. You then arrange a suitable time to check-in and share your progress towards your goals with them.

Peer Accountability –

Peer accountability is when you say your are going to do something with a friend or peer. For example – you commit to meeting a friend for a walk on the beach @ 6.30am. Then the alarm goes off at 6am and you might feel tired, however you committed to going walking. What do you do?

Most of the time, you would go right? That is peer accountability 🙂

Team and Group Accountability –

Team and Group accountability occurs when individuals are accountable for the results within a group or team. The individual could be as part of a team or group within an organisation, sporting team or even as part of an accountability group. At agreed times, the individual shares their goals with the team and group – including, what is going well, their progress towards their goals, current focus and what they might need some support with.

Organisational Accountability –

Organisational accountability relates to being accountability to the organisation your are apart of (if you work for one) and also the organisations that you do work with. For example – if we have a mortgage, we are accountable to the Lending Provider to pay our mortgage on time. If we don’t there will be a process that the lending provider follows in order to receive the money for the mortgage repayment. This process was part of the agreements we made when we signed up to borrow the money (which is one of the reasons why reading the fine print is important).