Are You Personally Accountable?

Kraig | March 26, 2012 | 20 Comments · Learning New Things

About a month ago, I wrote a post on how I feel that passion is contagious. Since I started listening to Dave Ramsey, I've noticed that I've picked up an excitement for a lot of the same things he's excited about. I don't think it's because he's my idol (because he's not), but I think it's because the things he's excited about are so darn awesome!

In case you don't know him very well, here's a few of Dave's favorite things:

Business - Dave runs a 300+ person company that consistently wins "best place to work" in the Nashville area. He does things differently and it's fun to learn about.
Personal finance - Dave is excited about helping people get their financial life under control so they can build wealth, "Live Like No-One Else" and "Give Like No-One Else".
Learning - Dave recommends reading at least one non-fiction book every month (I'm failing at this).

QBQ! The Question Behind the Question

Dave mentions many of the same books and authors time after time on his show. His recommendations are darn good ones too, I might add. One of his mentions that I read last fall is called, QBQ! The Question Behind the Question. This book is very good and from what I know, a pretty unique read. The book's author, John G. Miller, explains in the book what the question behind the question is. Before I tell you what it is, let me first ask you a question: When problems arise in your family, among your friends, at school or at work, how do you respond?

Do the phrases, "Who dropped the ball", "Why doesn't that department do their job" or "If she would only do her part we would have gotten the project done" ever come into play? The question behind the question is all about asking yourself, "What can I do to help get this project done" or "How can I train this team to be more productive" or "How can I be a friend today".

Personal Accountability in My Life

I'll be the first to admit it. I'd give myself a C+ in personal accountability. At work, I find myself blaming others for our company's disorganization and problems almost daily. I'm a leader there and what I need to keep convincing myself to do is ask this of myself: "What can I do do help our company be more organized"? Another is: "How can I be a leader who helps my team be successful"? It's a very hard thing to do, but if our company, our team and even myself are to be successful, it's important that I stop blaming everyone else and look inward. I have a lot of stepping up to do before I can call myself a real leader. Here are two failures I made with personal accountability just this past week:

I failed to reach out to an important client before a deadline because I thought the communication strategy was bad. What I didn't do was come up with a better one before the deadline and execute on it.
I spoke negatively about my team and our ability to get what needed to get done, done. What I didn't do was spend time training them, pumping them up for "game time" and giving them good feedback on what they did well.

So, everyone, that's personal accountability. Not that I'm doing it, but I am recognizing it for what it is. I'm convinced that recognizing how important personal accountability is and taking the steps to executing on it are the key to success among any individual, team or organization.