Accountability

Accountability is owning your influence and responsibility.

Accountability is a misunderstood concept. The Center for Creative Leadership defines accountability:

Whereas responsibility is generally delegated by the boss, the organization, or by virtue of position, accountability is having an intrinsic sense of ownership of the task and the willingness to face the consequences that come with success or failure.

From:

Furthermore, accountable people “look out the window to apportion credit . . . when things go well, [and] they look in the mirror to apportion responsibility . . . when things go poorly.”11 In other words, when failures occur, actively seek full responsibility for anything we could have influenced — we do not seek blame or look to “hold someone accountable” — we problem-solve and ask “how can I (or we) make things better?” Then, we can seek to improve the processes and systems that support self-accountability (including for teams) in a way that inspires trust.

diffusion of responsibility