Accountability according to Geoff Hunt of www.freedomtocare.org is:...entailed by responsibility. Anyone who is responsible is thereby accountable. To be responsible is to accept judgments, acts and omissions (refusals or failures to act) as one's own burden where appropriate, and in whole or in part. Accountability is the readiness or preparedness to give an explanation or justification to relevant others (stakeholders) for one's judgments, intentions, acts and omissions when appropriately called upon to do so. It is the acceptance of such a readiness and the expectation on the part of appropriate others that one has accepted it.Nothing happens if we don't consider ourselves accountable. Simplistic thinking, but true. The absence of accountability tends to make us inutile.
A noted psychologist has commented rather cogently on the value of holding one another accountable for our words and actions. In his view, the early Christians espoused the value of personal accountability by confessing their shortcomings to one another. But then, when roman Catholicism was instituted came the rule of confessing sins to the priest. The protestants made it worse. They said we only had to confess our sins to God. Then Sigmund Freud came along and blew the whole thing: he said we didn't have any sins to confess.
Personal accountability is imperative. Without, we slacken, we procrastinate and we make a lot of excuses. Personal accountability makes us committed to our personal, family and organizational goals. Moreover, personal accountability impels us to carry out our commitments against all odds.
Are you accountable today?