One of the most common challenges business leaders and people managers face involves taking responsibility for their own actions and getting others to take responsibility for theirs.

We live in an age of “no accountability”. Hardly anyone is prepared to accept responsibility for their thoughts, statements or actions. This phenomenon is found at every level of society – in our homes, in our schools, in the workplace, in government and in religious institutions.

People will hold everyone else, except themselves, accountable for their problems. For example, they will blame the economy, the government, the police or the school for their children getting into trouble. They will never consider that they were responsible for raising their children and no-one else.

This refusal to be held accountable creates all sorts of challenges as, while a problem is not owned, it’s unsolvable. While a person refuses to accept responsibility for their actions or their part in causing a problem, they will never be prepared to do what is necessary to correct matters.

Of course, when you refuse to hold yourself accountable, you will find it very difficult, if not impossible, to hold others accountable. That’s because you’ve lost the moral high ground and have no moral authority to hold others accountable. They will simply challenge you on your own failure to accept accountability, and you don’t want that to happen. So you’ll avoid confronting them. And they will be well aware of the game that’s being played and will play it even better than you.

This is one of the main causes of the breakdown in service delivery in the public sector. People in positions of authority have not met their own commitments and therefore know in their hearts that if they start challenging their subordinates about not meeting their commitments, they’re going to end up holding a tiger by the tail. So they remain quiet about it in the hope that nothing will be revealed. And things just continue to get worse and worse.

Taking accountability is one of the most empowering things you can do. When you own your problem or mistake, you take the first step towards solving it.

Holding yourself accountable is one of the most powerful business tools around. I have found that, when I have openly and unreservedly taken responsibility for something that’s happened, a number of very interesting things occur.

Firstly, what ever conflict existed disappears. How can a customer argue with you when they point out the problem and you take responsibility for it by acknowledging that they’re right? You’ve just blown them out of the water! They have nowhere else to move now. If you had denied the problem, they would simply have made a point of trying to paint you into a corner by proving in no uncertain terms how wrong you are. By the end of that, you and your company end up looking extremely stupid in the eyes of the customer and of everyone else the customer tells the story to.

But by taking responsibility, you send them a very powerful signal that you are on their side and that you want to rectify matters as soon as possible. This wins you friends – big time. In fact, by taking responsibility and taking active steps to address the matter, you end up with a more loyal and a more supportive customer than you would ever have had in the first place.

Start holding yourself accountable and you will find it much easier to hold others accountable. You will also turn unhappy customers into very loyal ones!

Alan Hosking is the Publisher of HR Future magazine, www.hrfuture.net and @HRFuturemag. He is an internationally recognised authority on leadership competencies for the future and teaches experienced and younger business leaders how to lead with empathy, compassion, integrity, purpose and agility. In 2018, he was named by US-based web site Disruptordaily.com as one of the “Top 25 Future of Work Influencers to Follow on Twitter“. In 2020, he was named one of the “Top 200 Global Power Thought Leaders to watch in 2021” by peopleHum in India. In 2022, he has been named on the Power List of the “Top 200 Biggest Voices in Leadership in 2022” by LeaderHum.