7 Easy Steps to Build Lasting Personal Accountability in Your Team

Managers cannot achieve their goals and objectives or their associates unless they have personal accountability for them. The same is true for the agents on behalf of whom managers are accountable; if there is no genuine sense of responsibility, it becomes impossible to accomplish anything worthwhile alone or with others.

Personal accountability means that individuals and groups must be held responsible for both ethical behavior and productivity, thus leading to constructive change in the workplace as well. In short, personal accountability is the degree to which an employee is held responsible for his or her behavior in terms of ethical conduct and productivity. This kind of accountability could be either internal or external, but both are important:

Internal and External personal accountability

Internal Accountability: Maintaining close relationships with family members and work colleagues helps a person form the intrinsic motivation needed to fulfill one’s potential as well as maintain responsibility throughout their job.

External Accountability/Feedback: A manager can give feedback to employees and can help form effective working relationships with individuals that require strong positive reinforcement. These relationships allow a manager to provide insight into not only an individual’s strengths but also shortcomings when their capabilities stress certain areas of growth in learning or performance.

What is personal accountability?

Personal accountability is an important part of self-improvement. It’s the idea that you can’t make progress in life without taking responsibility for your actions and decisions.

In other words, personal accountability means taking charge of your life. Personal accountability is often confused with blaming others. Not only does this make it harder to improve yourself (or the lives of others), but it also holds you back in a host of ways.

Personal accountability is the process of taking responsibility for one’s actions. It means that you take responsibility for your feelings, thoughts, and behavior.

Personal accountability isn’t something you can just decide to do once and then ignore. It’s a lifelong process that requires a combination of self-esteem and introspection. You must earn it through your character development, not simply by owning up to “bad behavior”, but by using all your available resources as you move forward in life.

Why is personal accountability important in the workplace?

Self-management and personal accountability are important at work primarily because of the added responsibilities that come with a coworker role. If you don’t navigate this new territory wisely, it can negatively affect your career.

On the other hand, if you develop personal accountability as part of your regular self-management practice, it should bring you less stress and a greater sense of peace. It will keep you focused on yourself so that when someone comes up with a great idea.

As a leader, you have to be accountable for your actions. It’s the most basic leadership principle of all.

Aspects of personal accountability

Accountability has two aspects:

First, accountability to yourself, and second, accountability to others. When you are in a position of leadership, the idea is to be accountable in both directions.

If you want people to follow your leadership without question, accountability within yourself will often go a long way toward making them do so. However, given that many don’t trust others completely, and secondly because they won’t accept responsibility for any belief or action as their own until it happens.

Power of Personal Accountability

Great leaders recognize the power of accountability and use it to move their organizations forward. They use accountability to create a culture of high performance where people are accountable for their actions, which in turn creates an environment where great things happen.

When your organization is being led by a leader who is accountable to others but not necessarily to himself, people regularly lose faith in that leader.

For example, when your organization’s leaders are falling short of the commitments they make or demonstrate inconsistency making, it is hard for them to be believed and then be taken seriously by those same stakeholders. People might eventually doubt the integrity of their leadership project and even blame themselves as if contributing to this problem with their inadequate performance.

If you blame someone else for your lack of success, you are giving away your power. 

Being accountable means taking responsibility for what you have done and what you will do in the future. It is also a way to develop self-trust. To become effective, a leader must take accountability for the team’s performance. Teams that are led by an effective and credible leader develop self-confidence in their abilities; this confidence then has positive effects on multiple aspects of working together as well as negotiating with other groups within the organization or external parties.

7 Behaviors that help develop personal accountability in your team

Taking personal accountability isn’t always easy. However, there are some things you can do to increase your sense of responsibility and take more control over your life. Following these behaviors will help you develop personal accountability

Define and communicate what we want to achieve

The first step to personal accountability is to committing what you want to achieve. You can’t build personal accountability without committing. When you commit, you’re putting your words into action. And this gives you the confidence to follow through with it.

To have a positive impact and influence your team, you have to make commitments as a manager. Stating objectives build teamwork; it helps employees get work done on time and within budget while creating a general understanding of the purpose of each activity or project. Taking responsibility does not only apply what is expected from one’s team members but also collaborates with other groups in an organization, e.g., the sales department, training staff, etc.

Involving your team members in setting the objectives is key to building accountability from them towards those same objectives. Sharing responsibility for a clearly stated objective (focusing on measurable results) effectively builds commitment and accountability in your employees. This is a commitment of cost, time, and/or people.

Furthermore, by setting clear objectives, employees can be assured that they are doing their job and contributing to the organization. A commitment may also be used to motivate and engage your team in projects and activities. This will help them work towards a common goal and therefore build teamwork. An example of this is creating incentives for teams to achieve certain goals or performance targets by allowing bonuses based on meeting those goals.

Give as much clarity as required.

How to give clarity to the team? Setting clear expectations ensures that no one is left wondering what they are supposed to do. Be very clear about what you want to be done, when you want it to be done, and maybe, how you want it done. Focusing on measurable results can also help keep everyone accountable.

we should clearly state what happens when the result is achieved: “we will be able to achieve a new business for our company by completing this project.”

Keep it stretched yet achievable

It is important to be realistic about the steps you need to take to accomplish your goals. It’s easy to want everything to happen overnight, but it is also unrealistic.

You can never achieve too much, and setting stretch goals will keep everyone motivated. Make sure your team knows what the goal is and that they can see some tangible evidence of progress along the way.

Be positive but frank about any challenges. It’s important to be realistic about how long it might take to achieve a certain objective. But don’t underestimate the power of positivity. Be honest with your team about any obstacles that could come up, and provide a plan for dealing with them. This will help build trust and respect between you and your team.

Setting clear expectations, focusing on measurable results, and being frank about any challenges are all important aspects of building accountability in the team. By doing these things, you can ensure that your team can achieve the common goal.

Remove the blame game

To have personal accountability, you must be willing to eliminate blame from your vocabulary. This means that you need to stop pointing fingers at others when things don’t go as planned. You should also take responsibility for what you can control. Also, when someone else on the team is doing it, call it out.

When you take responsibility for your actions and eliminate blame from your vocabulary, it will help build personal accountability in the team.

You also have to learn to accept compliments graciously. After all, they are simply another way of saying, “You’re doing a good job.”. Similarly, when you see someone doing a great job, compliment them. Accepting and giving compliments will also send a positive message to the team about how much effort you all are putting into your work.

Ensuring yourself and others around you have personal accountability for outcomes

When you take personal accountability for your actions, choices, and behaviors, you’ll want to be outcome-driven. This means that you’ll work towards goals and objectives with the result in mind.

For example: if your goal is to make more money, it’s important that you set measurable goals and track your progress. If you don’t have specific objectives, it will be difficult for the team to hold you accountable. This is especially true if there are disagreements or conflicts among the members of your team about what the goal should be.

Being outcome-driven also means holding yourself and others around you accountable for their actions as well. You need to ask questions such as “Did you achieve the goal we set for this meeting?” or “What are your thoughts on how we can improve our sales process?”

When everyone is held accountable, a High level of cooperation and collaboration will be created. Ultimately, this will lead to better results for your team’s performance.

Give and seek constructive feedback

As you become more accountable, you’ll learn how to give and receive feedback. And this will make all the difference in your progress. When you’re accountable, it means that someone is looking to you for a result.

When you give feedback, be clear about what you want to see improved. For example: “I noticed that your product presentation was fuzzy, and I think it would help to have sharper graphics” or “Your analysis of our competitor’s moves is insightful, but could you expand on your reasoning?”

Giving constructive feedback also requires patience. It can take some time for people to understand and implement the changes that you suggest. But if you’re patient and constructively offer feedback, it will eventually result in better performance.

Similarly, always be open to receiving feedback. Keep going back to the team to seek feedback. Feedback is a two-way street, and it’s important to remember that.

When you’re accountable, your team knows that you are always looking for ways to improve the quality of work. And by doing so, you will be able to achieve even greater results in your field.

Be flexible to change

You’ll need to be open to change if you want to make personal accountability a success. The change will happen whether you like it or not, so don’t try to fight it. Instead, be ready for the changes that will inevitably happen and embrace them.

When you’re committed to accountability, you’ll be flexible with your time and resources. This means that you’ll be able to give 110% effort in every aspect of your work. And because results will follow, this approach will lead to more success for both you and the team that you work with. Remember: being accountable means always putting your team first.

Openness to change also shows that you are implementing the feedback that someone has given.

Conclusion

Personal accountability is important in the workplace because it allows us to take responsibility for our actions and behavior. When we are accountable for our actions, it’s easier to make good decisions and take control of our lives. A lack of personal accountability can lead to poor decision-making, bad behaviors, and a lack of motivation.

By taking personal responsibility for our actions, choices, and behaviors, you can create a productive environment that benefits both you and your team. If you want to build a high-performing team, you need to ensure that your employees feel safe enough to speak up and act in the best interest of the company.