Did you know that Personal Accountability is a competency that you can develop? We define the Personal Accountability competency as, "Being answerable for personal actions." Who do you know who is highly skilled at Personal Accountability?

With practice, you can grow and develop this skill just like other "hard skills" you might be good at like cooking, public speaking, employee coaching, or playing golf.

How do I grow as a leader: Personal Accountability?

Those with a highly developed skill of Personal Accountability exhibit the following:

• Demonstrates the ability to self evaluate.
• Strives to take responsibility for his actions.
• Evaluates many aspects of his personal actions.
• Recognizes when he has made a mistake.
• Accepts personal responsibility for outcomes.
• Utilizes feedback.
• Observes and analyzes data to learn from mistakes.
• Sees new possibilities by examining personal performance.
• Accepts responsibility for actions and results.
• Willing to take ownership of situations.

Behaviorally, it comes more naturally and requires less focus for some of us to be personally accountable. For the rest of us, it is a skill we may need to invest energy into developing in order to be more effective. Our Driving Forces will reward for some skills and not others. If your job or your environment demands something from you that isn't naturally present in your Behaviors or Driving Forces, you can develop it in your Competencies. 

What about you? How developed are you at the competency of Personal Accountability? What about the people on your team? Is this something you want your team to be strong in?