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Having a high accountability mindset, personally and professionally, is paramount to success. This week I’m diving into a few critical aspects of both of them, and wrapping up with three questions that are helpful for anyone to check their level of accountability and ownership.

Personal accountability means taking 100% ownership of how you show up.

This includes how you behave and treat other people, the words you choose, and the way you approach your work, perform your role, and contribute to a team. Essentially it’s taking full responsibility for everything that you have control over.

One way that this is presents itself is how we see and approach conflicts with others.

Welcome to being human, conflict is inevitable.

One dynamic that I think is a perfect example to use when talking about accountability is in disagreements and static with others. Highly accountable people take full responsibility for themselves in conflict.

Although it is pleasant for us to imagine that we’ve done nothing wrong, the truth is that if you have a conflict or static with somebody else, there is almost always some contribution that you have made for it to escalate to where it is.

It might be completely unintentional, but often some behavior, tone of voice, or choice that you’ve made has contributed to the situation. It is high accountability behavior to take responsibility for how you’ve played a hand in the situation, and also to own how you respond to and navigate it.

One way to do this is in your narrative and any assumptions you make about the situation and other people.

When something happens that ruffles your feathers, instead of making assumptions about the reason for it, or what someone else is thinking or intended, it’s always better for your peace of mind and to have a chance to resolve the issue when you approach the situation assuming positive intent and being curious to clarify.

I think it’s very common and extremely damaging to relationships and workplaces when people make assumptions and then treat those narratives as fact instead of going to the source to clarify, discover the other person’s truth, and resolve the issue.

Complaining to someone else is low accountability behavior

Yes, there is value in having someone to act as a sounding board to check how you are interpreting a situation, but there is a very thin line between doing that and simply complaining or badmouthing someone.

Your best move is always to go directly to the source and have a conversation to gain clarity and make things right. Some helpful language to use when approaching this is something to the effect of “Hey, this situation that happened has resulted in me feeling this way. I’ve been ruminating over it and would like to have a conversation to get your perspective and hear where you’re coming from so we can resolve this and iron things out.”

In the process, being willing to listen and acknowledge how you have contributed to the situation is important. That is what ownership looks like. This is not easy to do if you’ve spent a lifetime complaining to others or avoiding these kinds of conversations.

There’s never a bad time to start becoming good at these types of conversations instead. It will drastically reduce the length and severity of conflicts in your life and also contribute to healthier relationships and more peace of mind, personally and professionally.

Owning your career (because who else will?)

Another beneficial aspect of accountability in your professional world is when it comes to your own career path. Owning your own advancement, education, opportunities, growth and advancement.

Leverage your boss. I’ve said it before in my blog specifically on this topic, but your boss, and your boss’s boss, should know what job you want.

And it’s not a matter of just telling them, be proactive about having them coach and advocate for you. Ask them for feedback, “How am I showing up? How could I be even better? What does it take to advance my career here, what do you need to see from me?” Seek that out.

Another part of being proactive about this is if you have gone this route, and made efforts and you can see that it’s not going to happen then you might have to make a different choice and find an employer who will prioritize your growth. That being said, these things take time and you’ve got to balance persistence with patience. “Now” is not generally an acceptable time frame for getting everything you want.

A victim mindset versus empowerment mindset

And when I talk about personal accountability and mindset, there’s an important element to it which is around circumstances and situations that you face. It’s very beneficial to adopt an empowerment mindset that no matter what the situation or circumstance is that you’re in, there’s something that you have control over.

To believe that you can change something, can learn something, improve and get better and find some way to work on yourself. Even if it’s just an ant step forward, there is always something you can do that you have control or power over. Even walking through or out of a professional situation that is complete horseshit (we’ve all had them), there is always something to be gained if you look for it.

I’ll use an example that’s very common and something pretty much everyone faces in their career:

Being passed over for a job or promotion.

This is always tough. It can feel like a huge defeat, and a big setback. It sucks. Especially if you feel that you were a shoo-in or the best candidate for the role.

Let’s unpack this in regards to accountability.

One way to respond to that is to be deflated and discouraged or gun shy to try again. I know it can be a huge blow, and I’m not suggesting that those feelings are bad or that you avoid them; they are expected and completely valid. What I will say, and where accountability comes in here is about what happens next.

When you take those situations and ask “What can I learn from this? What could I have done better? How could I show up better in my role that would cause me to get the job next time?” You are entering high accountability territory.

Another factor in this situation that is very specific, and a great example, is interviewing. You might be the best candidate, most experienced and best person for this role, but the truth of the matter is that the person who got the job instead might be a much better at interviews than you.

Interviewing is a skill in and of itself. One that you can very easily take upon yourself to become much better at. You can go right now and type into Google or Youtube, “How to be better at interviews,” and in the course of just one dedicated hour gain a ton of skills, tools, and tips to massively level up your ability to interview.

That is one example of how you can take ownership and accountability for yourself. It’s all about your mindset and response to circumstances.

Three questions to check your own level of accountability:

To wrap up, I want to share three questions that people can ask to check their own level of accountability in any given situation.

1) Who can I get feedback from?

Who can provide you with some mentorship, advice, and feedback to point out your own blindspots? How can you improve? What are you not seeing? Find outside eyeballs and perspective to give you some additional perspective and point out what you’re not aware of.

2) What part have I played in this situation?

What have you done to contribute to this conflict, not getting this job or promotion, or any situation that you’re in. How have you shown up? What can you take ownership of and pull from this that you can learn from and become better and more successful in the future? The willingness to look for and admit your own part is a sign of emotional maturity and accountability.

3) What resources can I find to help me here?

Is there a book, a blog, a Youtube video? If you don’t know of any, who do you know that might? Be relentlessly resourceful. Pretty much anything in the universe that you want to learn or get better at, you can type into Google or Youtube and there’s a master’s degree worth of free education out there about how to do it.

Take it upon yourself. Be the person who is accountable and takes ownership of yourself, your career, and the way you show up and engage with the world and other humans around you. It will be a huge contributor to your success.

Want more?

This article was created by Galen Emanuele for the #culturedrop (previously the #shiftyestribe). Free leadership and team culture content in less than 5 minutes a week. Check out the rest of this month's content and subscribe to the Culture Drop at https://bit.ly/culturedrop 

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