Have you ever noticed how the word “accountability” in a team meeting usually causes everyone to suddenly find their coffee mug deeply fascinating?

Accountability is easily the most sought-after quality in any organization, yet it is also the least understood. More often than not, it gets dragged down into a hunt for blame. Think about how many times you’ve heard someone ask, “Who’s accountable for this?” as if they were looking for a fall guy. Here is the fascinating truth: accountability cannot be trained in a classroom, and it cannot be mandated from above. It is purely a personal choice about how we live our lives. It’s the conscious decision to trade in a disempowered mentality for an empowered one.

At its heart, accountability is simply the desire to take responsibility for your own results. It is a natural predisposition toward action and finding solutions. It’s an attitude—a private, non-negotiable commitment to yourself. The bottom line is that our interpretation of a situation—our context—determines our final results. Look at the classic glass: if you see it as half full, that outlook shapes your results for the better. If you view it as half empty, that mindset will impact your outcomes too. We love to prove our context is right, and honestly, we usually are! If you feel like the cards are stacked against you, you can easily gather enough evidence to prove yourself right.

So I won’t ask you to justify your context, because I know you can. Instead, the far more important question to ask ourselves and others is: Are you actually getting the results you want?. If not, how might you expand your context to get those results?. When we aren’t aware of our context, it’s ridiculously easy to slide into a disempowered mindset. Suddenly, other people are the problem, the situation is the problem, or the universe itself is out to get us. It feels out of our control and not our fault—and guess what? We’re probably right about a lot of those details!

That is why leaders have to model accountability every day. Since it can’t be mandated or taught in a training seminar, everyone around us is constantly watching how we handle adversity. When faced with a stacked deck, the most powerful question a leader can ask is: “Given that all these things are true, what can I do to get a different result?”. We may not get a choice about our circumstances, but we always have a choice about our context.

I had to give myself this exact pep talk repeatedly when the pandemic first hit. Shifting my context back then was a constant battle. Being isolated and working from home was tough, and my brain kept slipping into a negative loop: “This sucks!” and “Why is this happening?”. Unsurprisingly, that mindset was dragging down my daily results. I had to consciously change my internal monologue. I made the deliberate switch from “This is happening to me” to “Any change is up to me”. I stopped asking “Why?” and started asking “What?”.

So, the next time life hands you a rough set of cards and adversity strikes, pause and hold a quick, honest meeting with yourself. Ask: “Given this current reality—even if it’s not what I asked for—what can I do to move this in a different direction? What can I learn here? How can I bring meaning to this situation?” Meet yourself with empathy and compassion as you proactively shift your outlook. That right there is true accountability in a nutshell.

Your Next Step:

Think about one area in your work or life right now where you feel stuck, frustrated, or tempted to blame external circumstances. Take five minutes today to ask yourself: “What is one small action I can take right now to move this in a better direction?” Write it down, commit to it, and take that step today.