Hey again, Steemitizens!
Do you find yourself concerned with personal accountability? Do you know what it means to be accountable to yourself and others, which is similar to, but not exactly like, being 'responsible" as most people commonly use that word conversationally in the English language?
I'd like to talk a little bit about "accountability" and why it's important, but I also want to clarify the difference between being "accountable" and "responsible" before I go much further because I want to stay narrowly focused very specifically on the topic of "personal accountability" and not tangent into "responsibility" much except to clarify the difference.
Google tells us the two words are related as synonyms. In fact they cannot even define one without the other involved:
But you can quickly see by the included usage examples that while closely related, they do not in fact lead to the same kind of meaning at all really.
Here's what I mean about the difference.
First lets split this word in its two parts: Account|ability
Account – “A report or description of an event or experience” – Oxford dictionary
Ability – “Possession of the means or skill to do something” – Oxford dictionary
So combined ‘Accountability’ is literally the ability to report on events or experiences.
To be responsible means to be in charge of handling something. I am responsible for taking the garbage out of my kitchen waste bin on pick up days. I am responsible for the care of the vehicle I rent at the airport. I am responsible for making my own decisions. I am responsible for doing my job.
To be responsible means to do the things required to complete the things you are in charge of. To be a responsible teenager who is out in the family car on a Friday night means to adhere to traffic laws and speed limits. To be home by curfew and not go places you are forbidden to go by your parents and so on. You are responsible for doing the job of handling this adult responsibility correctly, maturely and with adherence to the laws and requirements of being given the responsibility of being responsible, so to speak.
To be accountable means something very drastically different from being responsible, even as closely as the two terms are drastically intertwined and related.
"Perhaps the most important result of accountability is trust, which is essential in any relationship. Being accountable to something means that you're willing to make commitments and be responsible for your own actions." - Quoted from [Importance of Accountability in Leadership | Leading Like A Champion : Sep 17, 2014]( http://leadinglikeachampion.com/importance-of-accountability-in-leadership/ )
Being responsible is an assignment from an authority and is something that must be "performed". Now that authority assigning responsibility may be a parent, teacher, partner, loved one, law officer, any kind of leader you follow and adhere too and most of all, you, yourself. All or any of these might be people who place an assignment of responsibility for some thing, act, chore, task or behavior. To be responsible is merely to be in charge of the thing.
To be Accountable however, means not only being responsible for a task, thing or behavior, but also to actually take ownership of it, to consider it a commitment of your own and you must CHOOSE to be accountable. With responsibility your choice is to either be responsible or shirk the responsibility. The result is that the thing will or won't get done. More or less that's the only potential outcomes of responsibility on it's own. All the ramifications that come with acceptance or avoidance of your responsibilities will certainly vary with the importance and risks associated with the area of responsibility in question. Being accountable for taking out the garbage certainly has far less risk than being responsible for someone's health care, for example. You can be judged for responsibility at the level of did you do it, or not? After that, we start stepping on accountability's toes.
This is a much bigger onion to peel than merely being responsible for a thing. You may be "assigned" responsibilities and be held accountable for their outcome. But usually being accountable to one's self is more in the limelight when we CHOOSE to be responsible for things. When we make commitments to others to take on a responsibility for a thing. If responsibility is a noun, a thing you can possess, then accountability is more like an adjective. A thing you can do or not do and which is measured not just by a boolean "did it or didn't do it" but rather by a spectral metric determined by the observer, be they your own introspective self or outside individuals or groups looking back toward you.
Accountability in the context I am meandering about on here is about commitments. The commitments we make to ourselves and to others on our own behalves. These are not just assigned responsibilities anymore. They are promises. They are verbal or literal contracts we make with others around us to fulfill some area of responsibility. It is not the responsibility itself but the promise on top to perform it. It is the act of becoming measurable for the delivery beyond done or not done. It is accepting ownership of a promise and promising to deliver with integrity and some level of trust. Again this can be promises we make to ourselves such as "I will eat healthier, go to the gym, sleep more..." or to groups, such as "I'll lead this initiative", or "I'll bring the donuts to the meeting", or "I'll drive the kid's school carpool this week" and so forth.
You take on "responsibility" but you become "accountable" to yourself and/or others as a result of doing so.
"Accountability can most succinctly and precisely be described as answerability. Having accountability exclusively means a necessity and expectation to explain one's actions for whatever they are accountable for. An easy way to think about being accountable is literally - whatever the results of a person's actions, that person must be able to give an account of not just what happened, but why it happened and how.""Responsibility is the idea of being completely in charge of something, that the person who is responsible for something is the root cause behind whether that thing succeeds, fails, lives, or dies. If a person is responsible for taking care of their favorite rose bush, that rose bush's fate, its liveliness, and its health now has a causality associated with that person. If it thrives, it was the responsibility of that person and can be attributed to that person's actions. If it dies, the responsibility also lies with that person.
This does necessarily mean that if the rose bush dies, the person will have to explain how or why the rose bush died. Responsibility merely says that blame (or praise) is assigned for whatever happens to the rosebush to one person, or a group of people. If the rose bush dies, it is the fault of that person or group, but they do not owe any explanation of how or why it happened."
[Excerpts from: Accountability vs. Responsibility -- What's the Difference? (http://www.investorguide.com/article/15946/accountability-vs-responsibility-d1502/)
Being a person of high integrity means accepting accountability gracefully. Being a highly accountable person will increase your credibility with yourself and others.
Taking on a responsibility, instills instant accountability requirements in most cases. Strong Integrity bolsters accountability. Trust and credibility are the rewards of effective accountability, even when a responsibility may have been failed. It's not always about what you actually did or didn't do, responsibility wise, but rather how you learn, react and adapt after being held accountable for the outcome.
And it works both ways...
If you are responsible for something successful, such as a winning touchdown, and choose to be a poor sport or gloat about it to the losing team, your responsibility to play well was fulfilled but your accountability is a fail. If you take all the glory for that alone you do a disservice to the team that supported you, despite your winning move. Conversely if you fail to win the game and accept your failure was due to a mistake or a failure to follow all the rules of your role's responsibilities and do so with compassion and ownership of accountability, you will find yourself enjoying the rewards of integrity and credibility even though you didn't actually fully realize the potential of your responsibility to the team. You could blame others for not throwing the ball to you right or you can own not catching it. Which choices and actions do you think will get you further towards inner peace and outer acceptance?
Ultimately "accountability" is a personal pursuit. Responsibility is just a chore faced alone or in groups.
"Accountability vs. Responsibility. The main difference between responsibility and accountability is that responsibility can be shared while accountability cannot. Being accountable not only means being responsible for something but also ultimately being answerable for your actions." - [Accountability vs Responsibility - Difference and Comparison | Diffen]( http://www.diffen.com/difference/Accountability_vs_Responsibility )
As has been hinted, it is possible to have responsibility without accountability, or accountability without responsibility, though the two are often conflated into one larger meaning.
Leadership executives are accountable for the actions of a company, but not necessarily responsible for the companies failed or successful market place actions that come from the sum of the whole of all moving parts of a group inside the company.
Likewise, it is possible to be responsible for something, but not be held accountable for it.
A great example was when I had a house fire at my own residence. I was responsible for the event, the cleanup, the use of the fire crews and emergency responders time and expenses and so on. However, as it was deemed an accident, an "act of god" if you will, as legal docs often cite, it was not within my control nor did I make commitments to anyone promising their would never be accidents in my domain. I was responsible, but not held accountable for this incident.
Accountability is something we own and can at times be either proud of or ashamed of. Responsibility is something we take on or are burdened with but in principle is fairly detached from emotion in the sense of just being a thing, not a behavior.
Every single day we take on commitments and make promises. We sign little and large contracts internally with ourselves and with others. How we choose to perform and how we are reporting to ourselves and to others about the outcomes, positive or negative of the actions we applied to these "responsibilities" as well as how we react to others views of those outcomes determine our measure of accountability.
Strive to be highly accountable. Strive to have high integrity, even when no one is watching. Your credibility will depend on it.
People are watching you. Are you watching yourself?
Just like that, this post is over.
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