The Role of Personal Accountability in all Companies and Businesses

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Personal Accountability:  A measure of the capacity to be answerable for personal actions. 

An article in The Business Journal in 2005 states that the lack of accountability results in employee theft, re-work of projects, return of defective products, inefficiency, workplace conflicts and misunderstandings.  In 2005 business conditions were much better than they are today.  The stress employees at all levels feel about job security makes it difficult for them to focus on going above and beyond what is expected of them. 

Personal accountability is a mind set.  it is what people begin to value thinking about it, about the benefits of it, the impact it has on professional and personal relationships and the personal growth it creates. Todd Smith is the author of "Little Things Matter" defines accountability as being responsible  - giving an explanation of your actions- to somebody for something.

However, when you become 100 percent responsible for holding yourself accountable, Todd says, your performance will improve, your relationships will flourish, your market value will soar, people's respect for you will skyrocket, you will be a great example for others to follow, and your self-esteem will grow.

In our definition for personal accountability we use the word capacity which means to have the ability to do something.  The ability to do anything begins with a desire for it then discovering what it will take to possess it, like the ability to hit a baseball, to drive a car, to be effective in a job and so on. Once a person understands the impact of keeping a promise compared to not doing so he or she will be able to assess the how others personally and professionally respond to them.

The loss of self esteem leads people to blame others for the condition of their lives.  They tend to go with the flow of others who do not accept their responsibility for being personally accountable for their actions. It becomes easy to do poor work that produces products that fail in use that could hurt or kill those us use them. It is easy for sales people to blame many other reasons for poor sales when the real cause is the lack of personal accountability for their own effort.

Companies and businesses owe it to themselves, their employees, shareholders and customers to hire and maintained employees to demonstrate the capacity to be personally accountable for their actions. The following is a guide to recognize personal accountability in others:

• Accepts personal responsibility for the consequences of their personal actions
• Avoids placing unnecessary blame on others
• Maintains personal commitment to objectives regardless of success or failure of personal decisions
  

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