Own it – be accountable
There’s often a blame culture in our offices. We’re loathe to be responsible for problems or situations. Personal accountability is more than a buzz term. It should be our norm.
The Company I work for used to have a slogan “Own it" as a Trademark. We were often asked to demonstrate how our actions (good or bad) ‘own it’. Owning it may be standing by feedback our projects or behaviours bring about, or learning to respond rather than react to the result of our efforts. It also means pushing through on ideas that we feel merit attention.
If we wait for fall out we’ve missed the point of an ‘own it’ attitude. We should be accountable before we start – not just when things are going well. This new norm should ensure we are freely and fully accountable from the get go.
This means going all in with high integrity, being ready to bring a sterling performance every time. If we do this then it will greatly reduce any need to ‘fess up’ when mistakes, or misdirection occur, because we will have ‘the buck stops here’ mentality.
I’m not a fan of taking blame. Blame to me is an emotion that comes late to the party. If we’re accountable then blame should be irrelevant because we’re on it. Nothing in the process misses our attention, so there should be no need for blame because we’ll have amended things accordingly, the moment we spot a snarl up. But not everyone shares this view and I’ve been the recipient of finger pointing myself.
Fortunately, when you’re authentic, committed and invested in your projects, your attitudes and behaviours all line up to help you work with the right motive and drive to see things through to a dazzling finale.
Being half in on accountability isn’t really going all in at all. Owning it means committing all of you to your purpose.
Are you accountable for your actions and projects? How do you demonstrate an ‘own it’ attitude to life? Is there anything you could work on to be more authentic in your accountability to yourself?