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Relentless Accountability, Part 1

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A topic on which I’ve focused extensively in my writing and speaking—and one that is certainly popular with readers and audience members—is accountability. Most of us will readily concede that accountability is a characteristic we admire in others and try to express in our own lives. If you’re anything like me, you’ll also concede that accountability can be a tough standard to meet.

I’ll start by sharing my working definition of accountability. It goes like this:

Accountability is acknowledged ownership of the choices we make
And the consequences of those choices.

As you can see, I place emphasis on “acknowledged”. True accountability includes the willingness to acknowledge the source (ownership) of the choices we make, the relationship between those choices and their consequences, and the source (ownership) of the consequences. While there can be no misunderstanding about who owns the choices I make and the consequences of those choices, acknowledging that ownership seems to be a situational phenomenon. When the consequences are good, I’m eager to acknowledge my ownership of the choices that produced them. However, when the consequences are not so good, I may respond by pointing out all the other people and the circumstances that mitigated against better outcomes.

In my work and in my life, I have not gone far enough in my treatment of accountability. I am convinced that I make far more choices than I’ve been willing to acknowledge and that the consequences of those choices are powerful, even if my choices were made unconsciously. But if those choices are made unconsciously, how am I to know what they were? Ah, there’s the beauty of the relationship between choice & consequences. Even unconscious choices produce consequences. In fact, I’m starting to believe that the unconscious choices produce consequences that are quite discernible, ones that dramatically impact the quality of our lives.

Here’s one of the premises I’ve come up with related to accountability. Take a look at it and see if it makes sense to you:

The circumstances in our lives will always have some impact on us.
The choices we make about those circumstances
Will have more impact on us (prove more powerful)
Than the circumstances themselves.

OK, let’s be perfectly honest with ourselves, some of the people, situations, events, behaviors—the circumstances—we encounter are not pleasant. Outside factors have some impact on us, and some of those factors and their impact are negative.

However, the factors and their impacts are not where the story ends; they’re only the beginning. Contrary to popular myth, we are not helpless victims of the outside factors we encounter. We are actually the creators of the dramas that evolve from these triggering factors. In order to take accountability from compelling buzzword to practice, we must be relentless in our commitment to acknowledging and improving the choices we make.

As you can see, this is a topic that can’t be adequately addressed in one article. So stay tuned, because I will continue with this series of articles, not on accountability, but on Relentless Accountability.