Accountability — From Textbooks to Life

I always thought “Accountability” was a textbook word — the kind of word that arouses a very esoteric, nerdy feeling so you throw it in a couple of sentences when you want to sound serious but never think much of it.

It’s only recently I’ve come to see the importance of accountability and how it single handedly can contribute to success in whatever it is you’ve set out to achieve.

The importance of it struck me at two very different events in my life.

Event 1: Project at Work

I’m essentially responsible for client management and growth of my accounts which means I’m usually working on projects that lead to more revenue for my firm. I’ve been working diligently on one such opportunity and it’s important to note that no matter the size of the opportunity, you’re usually dealing with a few stakeholders who need to collaborate effectively in order to achieve the set outcome.

I noticed how even the most senior leaders can fail at accountability when we started imploring them for details around pricing of certain products and they started passing it around to others and those others passed it around to more others.

“Ask him — he should know”

“Ask her — she worked on this project so she should know better.”

“Go back to him. He’s the one who decided the pricing packages.”

While I empathize with the fact that people might not really know the answers to the questions we were asking, it was interesting to see how my perception for people changed depending on their level of accountability. If one of the leaders passed it to another, my level of trust in them automatically took a hit. However, if someone said the following,

“I don’t know much about this but let me have a chat internally and see what I can find out.”

I would immediately get an impression that this person gets shit done. They’re onto it. This would subconsciously increase my trust in them for any future projects.

I realized how many times I had failed myself in being accountable. While I saved a few minutes by passing something on to someone else, I was unconsciously creating an identity wherein people couldn’t rely on me. When this hit me, I decided to bring accountability back in fashion.

Event 2: Argument with Abhay

We were brushing our teeth when Abhay and I started discussing about an event that happened with a friend. Abhay remarked that I said something which was not what he was expecting and instead of being accountable, I went on to narrate a long-winded excuse as to why I said what I said. After a while, he remarked,

“Have you noticed that you never take accountability for these little things? It’s as easy as saying “Yes I said that. Apologies.” but yet these words never escape your mouth easily.”

At this point, I had learned my lesson. Own up to my shit.

Sometimes, it wouldn’t be my shit to own, like at work if someone asks me something I have no idea about. However, now, I’ll stop to look & think before I say “You should ask him/her.”