Posted by How do you react when you miss a deadline for your boss? Do you send a stack of emails explaining why it’s not your fault – your laptop crashed, someone else didn’t respond, you had too much on your plate? Or, do you send a simple message apologising for missing the deadline and outlining your plan to deliver it by the next day, and what you’re changing so this doesn’t happen again?
If you’re someone who thrives on reaching your goals and getting things done, accountability isn’t just a buzzword. It’s the foundation that turns your goals into tangible achievements. Without accountability, even the most talented people can find themselves wondering why their progress has stalled.
So this week I want to break down what accountability really means, clear up the common misconceptions that trip people up, and give you some concrete strategies to make accountability your competitive advantage.
What accountability actually is
Accountability is pretty simple in concept, but really powerful in practice: it’s taking full ownership of your actions, decisions, and their outcomes. When you’re accountable, you don’t just acknowledge what you’ve done – you follow through on what you said you’d do, you’re transparent about your progress, and you learn from the results whether they’re good or bad.
When it comes to goal-setting, accountability is what transforms your intentions into tangible results, the difference between saying you’ll do something and actually making it happen. Maybe it’s following through on your commitment to hit the gym four times a week, not just three, or delivering on your promise to a client, even when obstacles pop up.
The thing you have to understand is that accountability involves both the doing and the owning. You make commitments, you take action on those commitments, and you stand behind the outcomes. When something goes well, go ahead and take the credit, but when it doesn’t, you can’t deflect or disappear. You assess what happened, communicate clearly and openly about it, and make changes to your approach.
The cycle of commitment, action, and ownership is what builds trust, credibility, and ultimately, a track record as someone who gets things done.
What accountability isn’t
Before we get too deep into it, I want to clear up what accountability doesn’t mean, because these misconceptions cause a lot of confusion and can actually hold you back.
Accountability isn’t the same as blame or punishment. When something goes wrong, accountability doesn’t mean you should be pointing fingers or making someone feel bad. It’s more a question of identifying what happened and moving forward productively. If you approach accountability as a blame game, people will quickly start to hide mistakes instead of addressing them head on.
It’s also not a case of being perfect or never making mistakes. Properly accountable people make mistakes all the time: it’s what happens when you’re taking on challenging work and pushing boundaries. The difference is that they own those mistakes, learn from them, and keep moving forward. Perfectionism often masquerades as high standards, but it can also stop you from being accountable because you’re too afraid to admit when something didn’t go the way you planned it.
Some people think being accountable means micromanaging: checking in constantly or never trusting others to do the stuff they’re meant to be doing. But actually, accountability creates more freedom, not less. When people are reliably accountable, no-one needs to micromanage because everyone follows through.
Something that I think is important to mention is that accountability isn’t taking responsibility for things outside your control. As I’ve said in previous blogs, you can’t be accountable for someone else’s actions, market conditions, or genuine emergencies. What you can be accountable for is how you respond to those circumstances and what you do within your circle of control.
Finally, accountability isn’t beating yourself up when things go wrong: it’s not productive, and it’s not what accountability demands. Instead, look for honest assessment and forward action, not self-punishment.
How people get accountability wrong
Even when people genuinely want to be accountable, they sometimes miss the mark in ways that end up undermining their efforts. Understanding the common pitfalls can help you avoid them.
One of the most frequent mistakes I see is someone over-apologising without changing their behaviour. You know the type: someone who says they’re so sorry over and over every time they’re late, miss a deadline, or drop the ball, but the same pattern keeps happening. True accountability means you have to change your behaviour, not just keep saying sorry – an apology without taking any action is just noise.
Another trap is confusing explanations with excuses – there’s a subtle but crucial difference. An explanation provides context: “I missed our call because I was dealing with a family emergency”, but an excuse tries to deflect responsibility: “I missed our call because you scheduled it at a bad time and I had so many other things going on.” If you’re accountable, you can give context without shirking responsibility.
Some people also make the mistake of taking on accountability for other people’s actions, which seems noble, but is actually problematic. If you’re constantly covering for people or taking the fall for decisions you didn’t make, you’re not helping anyone develop their own accountability. You’re also setting yourself up for burnout and resentment.
Another one I see is people using something called “radical honesty” as an excuse to be rude. Being accountable does mean being honest, but it doesn’t give you license to be a dick! You can own your mistakes and communicate directly without making other people feel bad.
The worst one is when someone looks accountable without actually being accountable, making a big show of taking responsibility but not actually following through with changed behaviour or concrete action. They might say all the right things in the moment, but nothing shifts afterward. Real accountability means you have to walk the walk, not just talk the talk.
The real cost of avoiding accountability
When you dodge accountability, you might feel like you’re protecting yourself in the moment, but actually, you’re paying a steep price over time.
First, you’ll find your progress stalling. Without accountability, you repeat the same mistakes because you never properly examine what went wrong. That strategy that didn’t work? You’ll try it again because you convinced yourself the problem was something else. Those missed workouts? They’ll keep happening because you haven’t honestly looked at why you’re not showing up.
Your credibility takes a hit too. People notice patterns, and when you consistently deflect, make excuses, or fail to follow through, they stop trusting you with the important stuff. They might not say it directly, but eventually you’ll notice you’re not getting the opportunities you want. Trust, once damaged, takes a long time to rebuild.
You also miss crucial opportunities for growth. Every mistake and setback contains valuable information about what you could do differently next time. When you avoid accountability, you’re throwing away such a valuable learning opportunity. You stay stuck at your current level instead of developing the skills and judgment that come from honest self-assessment.
And something you might not have thought about: it’s exhausting making excuses. It takes real mental effort to craft explanations, deflect blame, and manage the story you’re telling yourself and others about why things didn’t work out. That’s energy you could be using to actually solve problems and move forward… or go for that workout!
Levelling up your accountability
So if you want to work on building your accountability, I’ve got some great strategies for you to try, especially if you want results, not just theory.
Start by taking responsibility the minute that something doesn’t go as planned. Skip the explanations and excuses in the moment: your first response should be owning what happened and saying what you’ll do about it. You can provide context later if it’s genuinely relevant, but lead with ownership. This single shift in your default response will dramatically change how people look at you.
Make clear and measurable plans. Vague promises set you up for failure, but committing to specific outcomes with concrete timelines makes it much easier to follow through (and much harder to get out of later!).
Consider getting an accountability partner, someone who checks in with you regularly on your goals. It could be a colleague, friend or a mentor, but the key is finding someone who’ll be supportive but honest, who won’t let you off the hook when you’re making excuses. Just the idea of reporting your progress to someone else can create positive pressure to follow through.
Build systems and checkpoints into your workflow rather than just relying on willpower. Commit to a weekly review of your goals, put it in your calendar and treat it like any other important meeting. Create milestone checkpoints where you assess your progress – having systems in place will reduce the chance that anything slips through the cracks.
It’s really important to track and review your commitments regularly. I think a lot of people make promises with good intentions, but then forget what they committed to. Keeping a running list of your commitments, and checking in weekly will drastically improve your follow-through rate.
If things go off track, communicate proactively rather than waiting to be asked. Say something as soon as you know you’re going to miss a deadline, not five minutes before it’s due. If you made a mistake, bring it up yourself instead of hoping no one notices. Proactive communication shows you’re on top of things even when they don’t go perfectly.
Lastly, develop the habit of asking yourself what you can do differently next time after both successes and setbacks. It’s a simple enough question, but it shifts you from defensive into learning mode and reinforces the idea that you have agency and control over your results.
Making it stick
Overhauling your relationship with accountability doesn’t happen overnight, but you can make a start today.
Pick one area of your life where you’ve been letting accountability slip and choose just one strategy above to try out. Maybe it’s setting up a weekly review of your commitments, or finding an accountability partner for a specific goal, or just practicing that immediate ownership response the next time something doesn’t go as planned.
There’s a mindset shift that makes accountability stick: you have to stop viewing accountability as something that happens to you when things go wrong, and start seeing it as something you actively choose because it gives you power. When you’re accountable, you’re in the driver’s seat. You’re not a victim of circumstances or other people’s actions, you’re someone who makes things happen and stands behind your results.
That’s your competitive advantage. Other people are busy making excuses and protecting their ego, whilst you’re learning, adjusting, and building a reputation as someone who delivers.
Accountability isn’t about being hard on yourself. It’s about being honest so you can become the person who actually achieves your BHAG! It’s what transforms potential into performance, and intentions into impact.
So, what’s one commitment you’re going to make this week, and who will you tell about it to keep yourself accountable? Start there, and watch how quickly momentum builds when you become someone who consistently does what they say they’ll do.