Accepting accountability for your actions is a must for moving up the career ladder or growing your business. I realize that we all get busy and we let things distract us or get us off track for our goals. These can consist of simple things such as e-mails, phone calls, voice mails, memos, someone dropping by to ask a question, an assignment that doesn’t go as planned, or even newly added “to do” items on your list. These are all external factors that we have a lot of control over. I call them “walk-by’s.” We allow them to become distractions to our goals and our plans. How we handle the distractions and how we get back on track is what is important. Don’t think that these “walk-by’s” will go away, because they won’t.
Actually, they will probably get more frequent the higher you move up the corporate ladder or as your business grows. How to manage them is what you need to learn. It all comes down to evaluating your to-do’s and your distractions each day and comparing them to your goals. You should be constantly reviewing your goals each day and evaluating whether your distractions are pushing you off course. You can’t afford to review them weekly or monthly. What you will find out is that you have veered so far off course that it will take some extra effort to get back on track. You should also evaluate the distractions and determine if you should be the one handling them. Can someone else handle these issues and get the same results? If so, delegate them or refer the “walk-by” to someone else instead of taking it on personally.
Have you ever been backpacking? If so, have you ever used a compass and a trail map or perhaps a GPS? You have to stop several times during the day and check your compass direction and compare it to your trail map to verify that you are still on course. If you only checked it once or twice a day and you were veering off course, each hour that you traveled would make it more difficult to get back on course once you determined that you were off course. It’s easier to make small adjustments more frequently than one large modification late in the process. Frequent validations are so important in staying on course. It’s the same way in marine navigation as well. Personal goals and business goals aren’t any different. Develop a constant validation process to make sure you stay on track. Another aspect of personal accountability is that of responsibility. Personal responsibility is accepting all of your actions, regardless of whether they resulted in a success or an opportunity. We all step up to the plate to take credit for successes, but we have a tendency to come up with excuses or rationalizing why something didn’t go too well. It is very disappointing to see so many people not take responsibility for their decisions when something doesn’t go as planned. You commonly hear “My manager approved it,” or “It wasn’t my decision to do it.” Or better yet, no one even steps up to the plate to say anything, hoping that someone else will take responsibility for it. Excuses seem to become the distraction all of a sudden, instead of root-cause analysis and then a problem-solving plan of action. It’s easy to want to blame someone else for those actions but in reality, just acknowledge and accept what was a result of your actions, be willing to work on the solution, and move forward. Those of influence are looking for you to accept it, correct it, and advance. In most instances, they aren’t looking to fire someone over the event (although that has been known to happen when excuses start to fly). You have to take and accept responsibility for your actions if you want to be successful. You learn from your mistakes, and accepting accountability for them communicates to others that you take responsibility for your actions. As a result, you will actually make better decisions in the future. You have to start by admitting your mistakes and then follow-up by taking responsibility for them. Those who admit their mistakes and take responsibility for them are strongly viewed as keeping the best interest of the company in mind. This is a great attribute of a strong leader.
