Holding yourself accountable in both professional and personal situations will transform your life and your relationships with those around you. If you aren’t familiar with the term accountability, a simple way to think about it is a mindset where you acknowledge the role you play in certain outcomes (positive or negative) instead of thinking things are happening to you from external sources to cause those outcomes. If you take accountability, you don’t blame others if things go wrong or play the victim role, you realize there are always things you could have personally done to change the outcome of the situation. It is not useful to dwell on the actions of others since the only person whose actions you can control is yourself.
I wrote this post to share with you the importance of accountability in workplace culture and how changing your mindset to own your role in different situations will benefit your home life as well. When you hold yourself accountable, your performance at work and your personal relationships will improve, people’s respect for you will increase, and you will provide a great example for others to follow. Holding yourself accountable allows you to become more dependable and trustworthy.
Now that you are familiar with the term accountability your next question may be “How can I start holding myself accountable?” The answer is simple! Just having the mindset that you are at least partially responsibly for everything that happens in your life is the first step. Once you start looking at things from this perspective you can begin changing your behavior. This eliminates a lot of wasted effort in playing the victim and blaming others. When you are honest with yourself, you can admit when you are wrong, apologize, and move on.
However, you should keep in that mind holding yourself accountable can be difficult and uncomfortable at times. Coming to terms with how your actions have negatively affected relationships with coworkers and family/friends can be a lot to process. But once you work through it and come out on the other side you will feel a sense of gratification that you were able to take accountability and ownership of your actions.
Next time you have an issue with a difficult client or coworker, take a second and think how you impacted the conflict. Was there anything you could have done to spearhead the issue so it didn’t turn into a confrontation? Instead of playing the victim and feeling like the other person is out to get you and has the goal of making your life miserable, take ownership of your roll in the relationship and how you could have handled things differently.
Taking accountability goes much further than workplace interactions. This mindset will improve your personal relationships and interactions with your spouse, family, and friends. Have you ever heard the saying about marriage “Would you rather be right or would you rather be happy?” This quote completely aligns with the idea of accountability. Sometimes our pride gets the best of us and we just want to prove how we are in the right and the other person did everything wrong. This is rarely the case since responsibility comes from both sides in nearly all altercations. If you hold yourself accountable and own your role in an argument it allows you to suck up your pride and apologize… even if it means you don’t “win.”
It is amazing the effects this simple change in mindset can have on your interactions with clients, coworkers, and personal relationships. By holding yourself accountable you will feel a newfound sense of self-confidence and contentment and I assure you, others around you will notice a change! Do you have any experiences of how holding yourself accountable has had a positive impact on a situation? Please share in the comments below!
