How accountable are you to your word?

By Jamie MorleyAugust 29, 2023

In the last article I wrote about being accountable principally from the point of view of your actions. Indeed most of the definitions of accountability define it as being responsible for your actions and decisions.

Cambridge Dictionary

‘the fact of being responsible for what you do and able to give a satisfactory reason for it, or the degree to which this happens’

Oxford Dictionary

‘the fact of being responsible for your decisions or actions and expected to explain them when you are asked’

I think there is an additional point though, which is about being accountable for your words. In which case, this would mean being responsible for what you say you will do and the degree to which this happens or not and being able to explain that.

It is very easy to say what you will do, it is much harder to actually do it. From multiple view points, if you don’t follow through on your word any trust you have build up with your team, with suppliers, with customers and any other stakeholders, will erode very quickly if you are not accountable for your word.

So, how accountable are you for your word? If you say to one of your team members you are going to do something by a specific time do you do it? If you promise a customer you will send them something by an agreed time, do you do it?

Dental Practice Leaders are extremely busy, often juggling multiple hats. It becomes very easy as a result to promise and say you will do something, but not to do it. You then apologise, say you will do it and at the time the person may not seem that upset. However, you are eroding their trust and faith in you. You are also setting the example to them that it doesn’t really matter if you don’t follow through and are accountable for your words, potentially creating a cultural problem to this end, which slows progress.

How do you prevent this? After all, you have so many things to do.

1. Interrupt any automatic response. If you are somebody who is a people pleaser it can an automatic response to say, yep, I will do it. Interrupt that perhaps by some kind of clarification statement, such as. ‘Please can I clarify exactly what needs to be done.’

2. Clarify the time frame expectations. Often this doesn’t occur and can lead to misunderstandings from both parties.

3. How important is this? Does it really need to be done at all?

4. Do you have to do it? Really challenge how much you delegate. Delegation is good for you and for the growth and development of the other person. You may think you are the only person that can do it, but is that really true?

5. Consider what you have got on at the moment and especially within the time frame required for the task. If you need to, check your calendar. Think about your whole life in terms of what you have on. Can you really commit to this?

6. Learn to say No. It maybe that you do this later but not now.

7. If you say Yes, what will you not do instead? Communicate to the appropriate people.

8. If you do commit to something, and you realise that you are not going to be accountable for doing what you said, let them know as soon as possible and before the deadline. Don’t hold on thinking you may suddenly get it done out of nowhere.

9. Make sure you have a robust system for taking note of what you said you will do. Whether it is pen and notebook, or any choice of task management softwares that exist. Create a system and stick to it.

10. Rate your level of accountability to your word, or get somebody to rate you. See where it is at and reflect on situations where you were not accountable to your word. How did this happen? What can you do differently?

Be accountable for your word. Be brutally honest with yourself. Recognise when you are and when you are not being accountable to your word. Create trust with those around you and develop a culture of doing what you say you will do by being accountable to your word.