Our Blog

Why Employees Should Display Personal Accountability

- Mar 28, 2014

Imagine you are an office manager who orders office stationery and after making your last order, you discover problems with the order. You call the customer service team of your vendor and after explaining the problem, the customer service agent tells you “It’s the dispatch team’s fault. I can’t do anything about that”

pointing-fingers

How would you feel? Would you be willing to do business with that vendor again?

Many employees refuse to be accountable. If the issue is not something that is in their job description, they refuse to solve it, even though it may mean giving the wrong impression to clients and customers. The truth is that clients don’t care who is supposed to solve their challenges. If they call or ask any employee of a company for information, they expect to get that information.

Personal accountability involves having a sense of obligation or willingness to accept responsibility. It involves taking ownership of situations and being proactive rather than reactive. An employee who displays personal accountability benefits both his employer and himself. You will generate business for your employer and in return, a good employer would reward you for your performance.

It involves completing the tasks that have been assigned to you and working towards a common goal for the organization. As an employee, one of the best ways of setting yourself aside from mediocrity is to do your work with diligence and energy.

However, personal accountability means you must not stop at simply completing the tasks assigned to you.

Just how do you display personal accountability?

For instance, you get a complaint from a client and the complaint does not involve your department, you should assure the client that you would ensure that his complaint gets to the right quarters rather than just offhandedly directing him to another department. You must understand that the success of the organization depends on every individual working towards a common goal.

This does not necessarily mean that you should attempt to do tasks outside your job description. Rather, it means that you must ensure that you go the extra mile in satisfying clients. If you are not technically qualified to offer the client help, ensure that you get the client the needed help from someone who is capable. Customers want people who would show care and empathy and if you simply tell them “Madam, I am not the person responsible for this”, you would turn them away.

By displaying the qualities and competencies discussed in this article, you would be able to show yourself as a high value employee.

With great vision, you need great people

Looking for higher-level career opportunities in Greater Boston and throughout Massachusetts?