Meeting Topic

Personal Accountability by Carolyn Banks

Personal accountability – the definition of accountability is taking or being assigned responsibility for something that you have done or something you are supposed to do. Taking responsibility means “Stepping up”, whether it is changing your business or changing the world—it starts with you. When you’re personally accountable, you take ownership of what happens because of your choices and actions. You don’t blame others or make excuses, and you do what you can to make amends when things go wrong.

How much of your success would you say is up to you—your choices, your actions, your behaviours— versus outside conditions? If your mind-set is that you’re at least 85% responsible for your success—and that just 15% depends on the way the wind blows—you’ll likely be successful. If you blame your problems and failure on other people, circumstances beyond your control, or just plain bad luck, you may be doomed to fail. The good news? Accountability is not just a mind-set—it’s also a skill- set that you can learn.

Take responsibility for your mindset. Responsibility is not something you do—it’s a way of thinking and being. You own your commitment to a result before the fact, before you even act. Be responsible “either way”. Next time you take on a project, be 100% responsible for the outcome. Not a little. Own it 100% —good or bad. You can be 100% responsible. Most of us don’t realize—or at least don’t admit—that we alone have the power to manage our lives and businesses. Sure, you can give that power away, but it doesn’t happen without your permission.

Empower yourself – there is only one kind of empowerment, and that is self-empowerment. Empowerment comes from within. By empowering yourself, you take the actions—and the risks—to achieve a result and get what you want, you step outside your comfort zone, make things happen, and answer for the outcomes.

The most direct route to self-empowerment is to be clear about expectations—not only what you expect, but also what’s expected of you. To do that, ask questions, make agreements, and clarify everything in writing. Otherwise, you risk suffering a key source of all upset: missed expectations.

Be honest – everybody messes up sometimes. Lying about it or trying to cover it up always makes it worse—no exceptions. Don’t tell untruths. Nobody believes them anyway—not even you!

Are you accountable for your actions even if nobody holds you accountable—or catches you? Be your own “accountability cop” and police yourself. On the long and winding road of life, choose accountability at every turn.

Choose accountability and own your success in your business and in life.

Look to yourself – and try asking the following questions:

What’s the problem?
What am I doing, or not doing to contribute to the problem?
What will I do to resolve the problem?
How will I be accountable for the result?

Next Meeting Topic

On Mindset – by Kathryn Scordino

Growing up in the 80’s my Dad would often say that the key to success came in two parts. First was talent or skill. In order to do well at something you had to tune in to what you were good at. The second part was what he called drive. The motivation to keep going in the face of adversity, push through when something was hard and motivate yourself to do the very best that you could. I’m sure this wisdom enabled me to keep going and eventually pass my driving test third time around!

In today’s world, the two things that Dad described would be the very definition of mindset. The beliefs, attitudes and perspectives that we have…..our lens on the world and how we view our place in it. Much has been written about mindset in the past couple of decades, popularised by Carol Dweck’s research which describes mindset as falling into two categories, growth and fixed.

Growth mindset is a person’s belief that their skills, knowledge and intelligence can be expanded and developed. In contrast, the fixed mindset is the opposite, that these things are pre-determined, set and cannot be shifted. Dweck believes that changing our beliefs can have a big impact. That growth mindset creates a powerful passion for learning and brain expansion. In her book ‘Mindset: The new psychology of success’ she writes ‘why waste time proving over and over how great (or not great) you are when you could be getting better’. In other words, why hide from our worst characteristics, habits or failing when we could overcome them.

Dweck importantly says that no one is wholly a ‘growth mindset’ or fixed mindset’ person. We all will be in both places at various times and places in our lives. But how much time we spend in one place over another is a choice. Something we have control over and an ability to decide how we look at life or work circumstances.

As women business owners, confidence, or our belief in ourselves is often a mindset that keeps us from backing ourselves and our true potential. Our businesses might be doing ok, but is our mindset stopping us from thinking big, growing our capability or expanding beyond the current reality.

A resource I’ve found useful to shift my own mindset is the ‘Confidence Code’ by Katty Kay and Claire Shipman. In it they share some brilliant lessons:

Stop overthinking – instead trust your gut instinct. If you wait for perfect, it will never happen. Instead give your idea a try. It could be the best thing you ever did!
Take more risks – confidence builds when you step outside your comfort zone. Taking a risk is backing yourself to learn and grow. If it doesn’t go right first time, it will be better the next. Ask yourself ‘What did I learn here’
Action breeds confidence – the practice of consistent small actions is far more likely to create success in the long term than a single, life-changing moment. Like saying yes to that client that scares you because the work is out of your comfort zone, or adding to your business with a product that you haven’t yet mastered the details of. The small wins add up.
Celebrate effort, not just results – focus on celebrating yourself for what you did or tried, not being the harsh judge of the small things that didn’t work.

Kathryn is a Leadership Coach and facilitator with a specialism of working with women business owners and leaders. You can find out more via her website ^[1]