Accountability is about one person taking responsibility. If two people are accountable for the same decision, no one is really accountable. — GLYN HOLTON, INVESTMENT RISK MANAGEMENT CONSULTANT

Embrace accountability, and take business risks under your own name. Society will reward you with responsibility, equity, and leverage.

Accountability is an important tool that leaders must utilize. However, it should not be the primary tool. It must be balanced with other leadership tools, such as making sure people understand the why, empowering subordinates, and trusting they will do the right thing without direct oversight because they fully understand the importance of doing so.

You are highly accountable. That's what I like about it. You are responsible for your investments and either they're good or they're bad ... There are nor many other people to blame, there's nowhere to hide.

Branding requires accountability. To build a great personal brand (an eponymous one), you must take on the risk of being publicly wrong.

ACCOUNTABILITY, n. The mother of caution.

Ironically, for peer-to-peer accountability to become a part of a team's culture, it has to be modeled by the leader. That's right. Even though I said earlier that the best kind of accountability is peer-to-peer, the key to making it stick is the willingness of the team leader to do something I call "enter the danger" whenever someone needs to be called on their behavior or performance. That means being willing to step right into the middle of a difficult issue and remind individual team members of their responsibility, both in terms of behavior and results. But most leaders I know have a far easier time holding people accountable for their results than they do for behavioral issues. This is a problem because behavioral problems almost always precede results. That means team members have to be willing to call each other on behavioral issues, as uncomfortable as that might be, and if they see their leader balk at doing this, then they aren't going to do it themselves.

So, it’s one thing to say “there should be accountability,” but when we think about and define “accountability” based on bad actors and bad deeds, part of our system of justice tells us that, yes, there should be serious, swift, and severe consequence, but also we must look to those who were harmed and ask, “Are we doing enough to allow them the ability to recover from that harm?”

Own your work and compound credibility.

Conflict is about issues and ideas, while accountability is about performance and behavior.

the credibility is a consequence of the method.

The enemy of accountability is ambiguity

When life happens, you can be either the author of your life or the victim of it. Those are your only two choices — accountable or unaccountable. This may sound harsh, but it’s true. Every day we choose one approach or the other, and the consequences follow us forever.

If you win, give the credit. If you lose, take the blame.