Inspiring Accountability

Two of the central notions of Personal Mastery are: 1) beliefs drive behaviour, and 2) behaviours drive results. Take together, these are the core elements of the idea of 100% Personal Accountability. If my beliefs drive my behaviour, and my behaviour drives my results, then it follows that I am accountable for my results. I can account for them, because I am aware of my choices and actions antecedent. Whatever the current reality is, can I recognize it as my life, and own it as something I have participated in? That ownership is what we call 100% accountabilty. Aitken Leadership Group take an unsentimental view of beliefs. Beliefs are the deep structures that lie beneath the surface of human behaviour. Beliefs require awareness, adjustment, refinement, and sometimes transformation. They can drive or restrict our capacity to live our purpose and achieve desired outcomes. Belief in the idea of 100% Personal Accountability can be very useful for an individual looking to get better results in their life. As a belief, it has certain clarifying effect. Excuses, blame, and victim behaviour are all almost impossible to sustain in light of a philosophy of 100% Personal Accountability. We think it is a very empowering belief, one where the ultimate outcome is freedom. And yet, like all beliefs, it is a personal choice. There are victims in the world. My stance of 100% Personal Accountability is a personal choice, and I cannot forcibly apply it to anyone else. Many people who survive difficult circumstances do so by adopting the idea of 100% Personal Accountability, or something like it. These individuals can be great inspirations to many. However, in a professional context, even though it may be easy to notice other people compromising their own results by slipping into a victim posture, we must be careful not to project our belief onto them, making them wrong and ourselves right, and thereby reduce the chances of anything changing. The fact is, my personal belief in 100% Personal Accountability is no more ‘true’ than the idea that my boss (or the market) is to blame and I am a victim. Neither belief is verifiable in any scientific sense. Even my belief that 100% Personal Accountability is a useful belief is not ‘true.’ It is just a belief as well! So when we are tempted to lecture someone about the virtue and goodness of 100% Personal Accountability, we are being tempted into a moral debate, one where we are positioning ourselves as the righteous, enlightened disciple. This debate, and the approach that drives it, must be avoided. When confronted with someone who clearly does not know about the choice of 100% Personal Accountability, it can be useful to find ways to inquire about how their behaviours – in the specific situation – are working for them or not. Find ways to engage them with genuine curiosity, with the intention to help them get even better results, and help them make some connections between their beliefs about the situation and the outcomes they’re getting. Most importantly, help people see how taking ‘ownership’ of the results can help them find more choices, and get better results. People do not respond well to being called out for ‘victim behaviour’, especially if it’s their supervisor who’s talking to them. The art of helping other people change their behaviour starts with self-awareness and humility. Beliefs may drive behaviour, but many of our beliefs and our behaviours are unconscious! Most of us don’t really know why we do what we do. It takes tact, clear intention, care, and curiosity to help someone become aware of how they have put their world together at the level of beliefs and behaviours. This is the work of Personal Mastery and doing it well can change someone’s life forever. Clarifying intention, sharing context, checking out assumptions – all the tools of ‘checking it out’ – will assist us in this work. However we do it, inspiring consideration of 100% Personal Accountability may be one of the most important leadership tasks.