Accountability As A Core Value

Accountability is a core value that’s essential to personal and professional success. It can help you achieve your goals, but it also helps others trust you, which makes them more willing to work with you. In this article, we’ll explore the meaning of accountability and why it’s so important. We’ll look at how you can use accountability in your life and work (and why being accountable matters), as well as some strategies for making sure you’re being honest with yourself and others about what needs to be done.

What is Accountability?

Accountability is a core value of any organization. It’s about taking responsibility for your actions, being honest and transparent, being trustworthy, reliable and dependable. It’s also about accepting blame when something goes wrong.

When you’re accountable, you demonstrate ownership over your work by owning any mistakes that may occur along with the opportunity to learn from them in order to prevent them in the future.

Think of Accountability As a Core Value.

If you think of accountability as a core value, then it will be something that is part of your daily work life. Accountability is about more than just being responsible for your actions; it’s also about making sure you deliver on what you say you will do. It’s about being reliable and trustworthy in all that you do at work, both internally and externally.

What does this look like? Well, let’s take an example from my own career path: for many years I was responsible for managing our finances in my role as head of finance at a small non-profit organization.

Our budgeting process was anything but predictable—we often had to make last-minute decisions regarding where funds could be allocated based on unexpected expenses or changes in funding opportunities throughout the year.

This meant that I needed to have a high level sense of awareness during the year so that when someone asked me whether we should approve their request for spending (e-mailed at midnight), I could quickly assess whether there were any potential problems with their proposal and make an informed decision without hesitation.

On one occasion when there wasn’t enough money set aside in our reserves to pay some bills (due mainly to underestimating how much we would need), I was able to quickly seek out additional resources by reaching out directly through phone calls made after hours until someone gave us access via PayPal so we could complete the transaction before midnight when access would otherwise have been denied due to banking hours limitations.”

Why Being Accountable Matters in Life & Work

Accountability is a core value for many people. It’s important to show that you are trustworthy and reliable, which can help you build better relationships with others.

One way to do this is by being accountable for your actions and producing results in the workplace or in your personal life. If you know that someone has high expectations of you, then it’s important to meet those expectations – otherwise they may not trust your judgment again (or at least question it).

Being accountable shows that you are dependable because it helps people know what they can expect from you. If something goes wrong or there’s an issue with your work then they will feel like they have someone they can turn too if things aren’t going well.

How to Achieve Personal and Professional Goals with an Accountability

To achieve personal and professional goals, you must be accountable to yourself. You must also be accountable to others, but this is not the same thing as being accountable for your actions.

The first step in creating accountability is establishing clear goals for yourself. It’s important that your goals are specific and measurable so that you can track your progress on them, but it’s equally important that they have significance—the goal should feel important enough to you that if you fail at it, it will make a difference in your life or work.

Once you’ve chosen a goal, set up a regular schedule (daily, weekly or monthly) where possible to check in with yourself about whether or not you’re progressing toward reaching the goal as planned. If something comes up between check-ins that causes a delay or change of plans—and these things happen—don’t beat yourself up over it; just get back on track as soon as possible by re-evaluating what needs changed regarding the initial timeline and making necessary adjustments before moving forward again.

Accountability Strategies For Teams

In any team, there are people who hold accountability for their actions and results, as well as their time. You can also assign accountability for commitments and communication to specific individuals.

• Accountability for an action: When someone is accountable for an action, they are responsible for ensuring it happens in a timely manner, or at all. They may also be responsible for making sure the action is taken correctly by other team members if needed (e.g., if the person who normally does the task has been unavailable).
• Accountability for a result: This type of accountability entails fulfilling one’s role in achieving goals set forth by your company or department within time constraints set forth by management (e.g., quarterly goals).
• Timely completion of tasks assigned to you: Be sure that everyone on your team knows what his or her deadlines are so they can plan accordingly when working on projects together! This will help keep everyone focused on the project at hand instead of getting off track by trying to meet unrealistic deadlines which might cause them stress while working under pressure – which would lead ultimately having negative effects on their work performance.”

How to Show You Are Accountable

There are many ways you can demonstrate accountability. Here are a few:

• Be accountable for your actions. This means taking responsibility for the consequences of your decisions and actions.
• Be accountable for your time. Have punctuality become a core value? If so, make sure to practice it every day in all areas of your life!
• Be accountable for your words. Make sure what you say matches up with what you do, and vice versa! Don’t speak carelessly or without thinking about the possible outcomes—doing this will only lead others into thinking less of you as a person, not more!
• Be accountable for the commitments made on behalf of yourself or others (e.g., promises). If someone asks something from you, then delivering on their request is vital given how much trust they put into asking such things in the first place – don’t disappoint them by breaking off that promise at any cost!

Accountability Comes First

As a leader, it’s your responsibility to set clear expectations with your team. What you can’t do is expect people to be accountable for results if you haven’t clearly communicated what those results are. When it comes to setting goals, I have a rule: accountability comes first.

Knowing the specifics of what it is that you’re responsible for is an essential element of being able to hold yourself and others accountable for them. Remember, if no one knows what they’re supposed to do, how can anyone expect them not only know how well they did but also take responsibility when something doesn’t go according to plan?

Accountability is Not a Badge

Accountability is not a badge. It is not something you can put on or take off, like a shirt. It’s a core value that must be lived every moment of your life.

Accountability is not about being better than someone else. Accountability is about doing the right thing because it’s the right thing to do — not because there’s an audience watching, or because you’re afraid of getting caught if you don’t do it.

Accountability isn’t just for people in positions of authority; it applies to everyone in an organization and should be modeled by those at all levels of its hierarchy. When leaders hold themselves accountable for their actions and decisions, they set an example for their employees to follow suit with similar behavior of their own (and vice versa).

Accountability Gone Wrong

Accountability isn’t synonymous with blame or obligation either; if anything, it’s an act of trust between two people who are both trying their best at any given moment in time—one supports while the other grows stronger as a result of this relationship (which becomes mutually beneficial). This support system extends beyond personal relationships too.

That said…there must always come a point where accountability becomes overbearing; when expectations become too high due not only on our own potential but also on other people’s ideas about us (especially without our consent). In these cases it’s important that we understand why certain boundaries exist within certain situations so we can determine whether they’re serving us well or not anymore.”

Conclusion

I hope you found this list of accountability strategies helpful. I think that the key takeaway is that accountability has a lot to do with being honest, but also being willing to make changes when they’re needed. This means that even when things aren’t going well, we have no choice but to keep trying until we get them right!