Are you accountable? Are you responsible? They are not the same thing you know...

in #life7 years ago (edited)

Hey again, Steemitizens!

Do you find yourself concerned with personal accountability? Do you know what it means to be accountable to yourself and others, which is similar to, but not exactly like, being 'responsible" as most people commonly use that word conversationally in the English language?

I'd like to talk a little bit about "accountability" and why it's important, but I also want to clarify the difference between being "accountable" and "responsible" before I go much further because I want to stay narrowly focused very specifically on the topic of "personal accountability" and not tangent into "responsibility" much except to clarify the difference.

Google tells us the two words are related as synonyms. In fact they cannot even define one without the other involved:

But you can quickly see by the included usage examples that while closely related, they do not in fact lead to the same kind of meaning at all really.

Here's what I mean about the difference.

First lets split this word in its two parts: Account|ability

Account – “A report or description of an event or experience” – Oxford dictionary

Ability – “Possession of the means or skill to do something” – Oxford dictionary

So combined ‘Accountability’ is literally the ability to report on events or experiences.

To be responsible means to be in charge of handling something. I am responsible for taking the garbage out of my kitchen waste bin on pick up days. I am responsible for the care of the vehicle I rent at the airport. I am responsible for making my own decisions. I am responsible for doing my job.

To be responsible means to do the things required to complete the things you are in charge of. To be a responsible teenager who is out in the family car on a Friday night means to adhere to traffic laws and speed limits. To be home by curfew and not go places you are forbidden to go by your parents and so on. You are responsible for doing the job of handling this adult responsibility correctly, maturely and with adherence to the laws and requirements of being given the responsibility of being responsible, so to speak.

To be accountable means something very drastically different from being responsible, even as closely as the two terms are drastically intertwined and related.

"Perhaps the most important result of accountability is trust, which is essential in any relationship. Being accountable to something means that you're willing to make commitments and be responsible for your own actions." - Quoted from [Importance of Accountability in Leadership | Leading Like A Champion : Sep 17, 2014]( http://leadinglikeachampion.com/importance-of-accountability-in-leadership/ )

Being responsible is an assignment from an authority and is something that must be "performed". Now that authority assigning responsibility may be a parent, teacher, partner, loved one, law officer, any kind of leader you follow and adhere too and most of all, you, yourself. All or any of these might be people who place an assignment of responsibility for some thing, act, chore, task or behavior. To be responsible is merely to be in charge of the thing.

To be Accountable however, means not only being responsible for a task, thing or behavior, but also to actually take ownership of it, to consider it a commitment of your own and you must CHOOSE to be accountable. With responsibility your choice is to either be responsible or shirk the responsibility. The result is that the thing will or won't get done. More or less that's the only potential outcomes of responsibility on it's own. All the ramifications that come with acceptance or avoidance of your responsibilities will certainly vary with the importance and risks associated with the area of responsibility in question. Being accountable for taking out the garbage certainly has far less risk than being responsible for someone's health care, for example. You can be judged for responsibility at the level of did you do it, or not? After that, we start stepping on accountability's toes.

This is a much bigger onion to peel than merely being responsible for a thing. You may be "assigned" responsibilities and be held accountable for their outcome. But usually being accountable to one's self is more in the limelight when we CHOOSE to be responsible for things. When we make commitments to others to take on a responsibility for a thing. If responsibility is a noun, a thing you can possess, then accountability is more like an adjective. A thing you can do or not do and which is measured not just by a boolean "did it or didn't do it" but rather by a spectral metric determined by the observer, be they your own introspective self or outside individuals or groups looking back toward you.

Accountability in the context I am meandering about on here is about commitments. The commitments we make to ourselves and to others on our own behalves. These are not just assigned responsibilities anymore. They are promises. They are verbal or literal contracts we make with others around us to fulfill some area of responsibility. It is not the responsibility itself but the promise on top to perform it. It is the act of becoming measurable for the delivery beyond done or not done. It is accepting ownership of a promise and promising to deliver with integrity and some level of trust. Again this can be promises we make to ourselves such as "I will eat healthier, go to the gym, sleep more..." or to groups, such as "I'll lead this initiative", or "I'll bring the donuts to the meeting", or "I'll drive the kid's school carpool this week" and so forth.

You take on "responsibility" but you become "accountable" to yourself and/or others as a result of doing so.

"Accountability can most succinctly and precisely be described as answerability. Having accountability exclusively means a necessity and expectation to explain one's actions for whatever they are accountable for. An easy way to think about being accountable is literally - whatever the results of a person's actions, that person must be able to give an account of not just what happened, but why it happened and how."

"Responsibility is the idea of being completely in charge of something, that the person who is responsible for something is the root cause behind whether that thing succeeds, fails, lives, or dies. If a person is responsible for taking care of their favorite rose bush, that rose bush's fate, its liveliness, and its health now has a causality associated with that person. If it thrives, it was the responsibility of that person and can be attributed to that person's actions. If it dies, the responsibility also lies with that person.

This does necessarily mean that if the rose bush dies, the person will have to explain how or why the rose bush died. Responsibility merely says that blame (or praise) is assigned for whatever happens to the rosebush to one person, or a group of people. If the rose bush dies, it is the fault of that person or group, but they do not owe any explanation of how or why it happened."
[Excerpts from: Accountability vs. Responsibility -- What's the Difference? (http://www.investorguide.com/article/15946/accountability-vs-responsibility-d1502/)

Being a person of high integrity means accepting accountability gracefully. Being a highly accountable person will increase your credibility with yourself and others.

Taking on a responsibility, instills instant accountability requirements in most cases. Strong Integrity bolsters accountability. Trust and credibility are the rewards of effective accountability, even when a responsibility may have been failed. It's not always about what you actually did or didn't do, responsibility wise, but rather how you learn, react and adapt after being held accountable for the outcome.

And it works both ways...

If you are responsible for something successful, such as a winning touchdown, and choose to be a poor sport or gloat about it to the losing team, your responsibility to play well was fulfilled but your accountability is a fail. If you take all the glory for that alone you do a disservice to the team that supported you, despite your winning move. Conversely if you fail to win the game and accept your failure was due to a mistake or a failure to follow all the rules of your role's responsibilities and do so with compassion and ownership of accountability, you will find yourself enjoying the rewards of integrity and credibility even though you didn't actually fully realize the potential of your responsibility to the team. You could blame others for not throwing the ball to you right or you can own not catching it. Which choices and actions do you think will get you further towards inner peace and outer acceptance?

Ultimately "accountability" is a personal pursuit. Responsibility is just a chore faced alone or in groups.

"Accountability vs. Responsibility. The main difference between responsibility and accountability is that responsibility can be shared while accountability cannot. Being accountable not only means being responsible for something but also ultimately being answerable for your actions." - [Accountability vs Responsibility - Difference and Comparison | Diffen]( http://www.diffen.com/difference/Accountability_vs_Responsibility )

As has been hinted, it is possible to have responsibility without accountability, or accountability without responsibility, though the two are often conflated into one larger meaning.

Leadership executives are accountable for the actions of a company, but not necessarily responsible for the companies failed or successful market place actions that come from the sum of the whole of all moving parts of a group inside the company.

Likewise, it is possible to be responsible for something, but not be held accountable for it.

A great example was when I had a house fire at my own residence. I was responsible for the event, the cleanup, the use of the fire crews and emergency responders time and expenses and so on. However, as it was deemed an accident, an "act of god" if you will, as legal docs often cite, it was not within my control nor did I make commitments to anyone promising their would never be accidents in my domain. I was responsible, but not held accountable for this incident.

Accountability is something we own and can at times be either proud of or ashamed of. Responsibility is something we take on or are burdened with but in principle is fairly detached from emotion in the sense of just being a thing, not a behavior.

Every single day we take on commitments and make promises. We sign little and large contracts internally with ourselves and with others. How we choose to perform and how we are reporting to ourselves and to others about the outcomes, positive or negative of the actions we applied to these "responsibilities" as well as how we react to others views of those outcomes determine our measure of accountability.

Strive to be highly accountable. Strive to have high integrity, even when no one is watching. Your credibility will depend on it.

People are watching you. Are you watching yourself?

Just like that, this post is over.

Full steem ahead, steemitizens!

@sircork

Tune into my show: Monday Night Minnow School on The MSP Waves Radio Network
Get more info about this and other great steemit MSP talk-radio shows at:
http://mspwaves.com


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I do my best to meet both requirements. When I am responsible, and I am held accountable for my actions, it's all good. It's when my responsibility fails, that's when the accountability starts to bite. Which, I do account for my own behavior, when need arises. Accountability can also mean, accepting responsibility for ones own faults, and making what ever efforts necessary to restore matters to right.

Exactly all of that! Well said! <3

Thank you for post, which was very interesting to read.

I work a lot with Integrity, Truth and Discernment which I believe are the foundation for a good, caring, empathic and peaceful society - which we don't have, so those qualities are obviously missing from the foundation of humanity!

I really value your post and the message you are spreading and I totally agree with your comments, but I did keep feeling that a big issue is that people / companies have be responsible without having integrity. In fact, their aim can be totally out of integrity as we have seen with the big oil companies wanting to bulldoze through land, pollute rivers and people's water supplies so they can have greater profits. They have responsibility to do this damage, but it is so out of integrity.

I mention this to raise awareness that responsibility is actually neutral. You can be responsible to do good or evil, so people do need to question when they are being given orders from authority as to whether they should carry out that order, and ask is this moral?

Police, governments, corporations, justice systems should all be working with integrity, but that is not always the case, so when they aren't then we need to question whether we blindly 'do as we are told' or question the system.

Thanks again for you post and congratulations on becoming a witness, I will definitely vote for you!

Wow, thanks for putting so much effort into your reply! I agree responsibility is "nuetral" as describe. I may not have made that clear enough and your additional insight is helpful to support my assertions.

Responsibility is more or less just the assignment of execution. Accountability is more or less how you manage the aftermath of the execution. So while you are totally not wrong, I also wasn't really focused on right or wrong of the type of things people are responsible for or the right or wrongness of their responsive accountability but rather the difference between the two things of responsibility vs accountability.

Thanks for reading thoughtfully and replying in the same fashion! And definitely thank you for the witness vote! I really need those so I can help be responsible for the block chain, and I will be accountable to my voters and the community always!

another wonderful topic from @sircork. ill admit, i skimmed while in a doctors waiting room. but i will be back to get the full detail later!

I believe that we are in a current state of society, at least Americans, where so many people desire the mantle of being responsible without having to worry about the Accountability. There is a level of trust for the person leveling the responsibility on someone, that the person will be accountable to the task given.

Responsibility can be equated, in some way, to POWER.

If I make you responsible for my money, My STEEM, then I am trusting you to be accountable for how that money is used and maintained.

So is TRUST the next term that we need to explore? Or do we just assume it as a part of Accountability that we earn the trust we desire from each other?

trust is earned, but it also has to be given and sometimes being worthy alone doesn't make it easier for the giver who has been wronged to issue it to others easily. This is a big onion to peel, im not sure im prepared to tackle that topic just now... but some day!

Maybe we'll do a show and ramble about it with an audience sometime!

Thanks Mike, hope all went ok at the docs!

Great post Corky.
Setting out your stall as an 'accountable' witness dude. Nice.

I won't always get it all right, but I'll always try to be as close as possible for the good of the chain, the community and the people like you in here who make it all worthwhile!

Hey thanks man, that really cool of ya.

You're welcome! All part of the Sir Cork premium package!

A great post on accountability and responsibility whic are both vital for success. Thanks for sharing

Both are just plain old vital, success or not, in my opinion! Thanks for reading as always Charles!

You are welcome , keep up the good posts

would rather see our politicians answer the "accountability" question lol

Hell, they won't even answer Yes or NO questions lol

so true ..... wonder how a brain can get so screwed up that it turns into a politician...
“The major problem—one of the major problems, for there are several—one of the many major problems with governing people is that of whom you get to do it; or rather of who manages to get people to let them do it to them.
To summarize: it is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it.
To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.”
― Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

So um... vote for me for witness? :D bwahahahaha - i love Douglas A. Good quote, I'll allow it! :)

only been around here 2 months or so still trying to wrap my head around the witness thing ..but sure I read we have a few inactive witnesses these days and they where trying to work on that..

next question ...how ... lol

I will never be inactive! I hereby promise you face to face like a man!

Two months? Ahhh shucks...

ok there u go 1 vote

Thank you! I'll try to continually be making it worth your trouble and time to gift your vote to me!

"It is accepting ownership of a promise and promising to deliver with integrity and some level of trust". This is also considered a breach of contract when it is not met. I had it happen to me a few months ago, an agreement was set forth, terms agreed to and a third party (who was fully aware of the agreement) stepped in and convinced the other party to break the contract that had been agreed to. Their loss is my gain because it showed 100% that neither of those parties were trustworthy. It snowballs in ways many do not consider. Great topic! Sharing for others to chime in...

Sorry that unfortunate set of occurrences happened to you. Bright side, what did it ending that way help you avoid down the road? Thanks for reading and sharing your thoughts!

To be choosier in who I give my time to. Some folks are not worth it.

There ya go!!!! Lesson Earned! :)

Congratulations! This post has been upvoted from the communal account, @minnowsupport, by SirCork [MSP Waves Stn Mgr] from the Minnow Support Project. It's a witness project run by aggroed, ausbitbank, teamsteem, theprophet0, someguy123, neoxian, followbtcnews/crimsonclad, and netuoso. The goal is to help Steemit grow by supporting Minnows and creating a social network. Please find us in the Peace, Abundance, and Liberty Network (PALnet) Discord Channel. It's a completely public and open space to all members of the Steemit community who voluntarily choose to be there.

This post has received a 0.78 % upvote from @drotto thanks to: @banjo.

Thanks bots helping bots do bot things! :D

Love you @banjo!

Classics, interesting. Anything current you are reading right now?

I'm reading your comments @banjo, because you are my best friend!

If after reading this post someone still does not understand the difference between Responsibility and Accountability, well they will never ever understand!
Beautifully written mate!
p.s. my vote coming your way shortly!
Thanks so much!

I guess I did kinda hammer the point, huh? LOL Thanks for reading. How's your wife enjoying the place?

Hammered directly in the head man! She is really enjoying actually, and i am actually a mini "sircork" these days...explaining and helping her out!Hahaha!

You are a bigger man than just a mini Sir Cork! You are the SUPER CHEF!

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