Quotes About Accountability

Habit 1 says, "You are the programmer." Habit 2, then, says, "Write the program." Until you accept the idea that you are responsible, that you are the programmer, you won't really invest in writing the program.

If you know the failure paths of the job, identify them. Be honest and open—tell a person where the quicksand is and where the wild animals are. You don't want to have to reinvent the wheel every day. Let people learn from your mistakes or the mistakes of others. Point out the potential failure paths, what not to do, but don't tell them what to do. Keep the responsibility for results with them—to do whatever is necessary within the guidelines.

Stephen R. Covey

The commitments we make to ourselves and to others, and our integrity to those commitments, is the essence and clearest manifestation of our proactivity.

It's the nature of reactive people to absolve themselves of responsibility. It's so much safer to say, "I am not responsible." If I say "I am responsible," I might have to say, "I am irresponsible." It

While we are free to choose our actions, we are not free to choose the consequences of those actions. Consequences are governed by natural law. They are out in the Circle of Concern.

It's the nature of reactive people to absolve themselves of responsibility. It's so much safer to say, "I am not responsible." If I say "I am responsible," I might have to say, "I am irresponsible.

he can only answer to life by answering for his own life;

If you pick up one end of the stick, you pick up the other.

On the maturity continuum, dependence is the paradigm of you—you take care of me; you come through for me; you didn't come through; I blame you for the results.

I know this idea is a dramatic paradigm shift for many people. It is so much easier to blame other people, conditioning, or conditions for our own stagnant situation. But we are responsible—"response-able"—to control our lives and to powerfully influence our circumstances by working on be, on what we are.

Though they may have to prioritize the use of their influence, proactive people have a Circle of Concern that is at least as big as their Circle of Influence, accepting the responsibility to use their influence effectively.

As humans, our tendency is to play the victim. And unless you're watchful, it will sneak up on you and you'll start blaming outside forces—parents, spouses, bosses, the weather, the government, circumstances, "the Man," whomever—for your problems. In reality, we are not victims. We're agents. We are the creative forces of our lives, and we are free to choose. But we have to be reminded of this all the time.

El poder de comprometernos con nosotros mismos y de mantener esos compromisos es la esencia del desarrollo de los hábitos básicos de la efectividad

No management success can compensate for failure in leadership.

It's the nature of reactive people to absolve themselves of responsibility. It's so much safer to say, I am not responsible. If I say I am responsible, I might have to say, I am irresponsible. It would be very hard for me to say that I have the power to choose my response and that the response I have chosen has resulted in my involvement in a negative, collusive environment, especially if for years I have absolved myself of responsibility for results in the name of someone else's weaknesses.

One of the fundamental problems in organizations, including families, is that people are not committed to the determinations of other people for their lives.

creation. Returning to the computer metaphor, Habit 1 says, "You are the programmer."Habit 2, then, says, "Write the program." Until you accept the idea that you are responsible, that you are the programmer, you won't really invest in writing the program.

By making and keeping promises to ourselves and others, little by little, our honor becomes greater than our moods. The

My criticism is worse than the conduct I want to correct.

awareness—making promises, setting goals, and being true to them—

am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions.

As we make and keep commitments, even small commitments, we begin to establish an inner integrity that gives us the awareness of self-control and the courage and strength to accept more of the responsibility for our own lives.

I admit this is very hard to accept emotionally, especially if we have had years and years of explaining our misery in the name of circumstance or someone else's behavior. But until a person can say deeply and honestly, "I am what I am today because of the choices I made yesterday," that person cannot say, "I choose otherwise.