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The Power of Personal Accountability: Achieve What Matters to You
What is the Power of Personal Accountability Approach? Pay attention to what really matters to you. Find out where you spend your time and energy. Understand what works and what doesn’t and then use the simple strategies described in this book to change what doesn’t. Built around Mark Samuel’s and Sophie Chiche’s Personal Accountability Model, the authors share their structured approach, case studies, and exercises in a highly motivating manner. You will learn how to make choices consistent with your desired outcomes. Why You’ll Want to Read This Book Because life’s too short. This book invites you to look at what is there and what you would like instead. Then go for it. Who Should Read The Power of Personal Accountability? You should, if you want • Be more successful – at work, at home, even at play • Improve relationships with clients, co-workers, family and friends • Realize your full potential, get more done, fulfill your dreams • Finish ongoing projects, take on new challenges, set and achieve new goals • Look back on your life with satisfaction, with the absolute certainty that you did the best you could Bottom Line on The Power of Personal Accountability Being accountable helps you achieve what matters to you. Get things done. What you want to get done. Don’t let fear get in your way. Don’t be a victim. Don’t blame others. Don’t be afraid to fail—or succeed. Learn from leading authorities in the human potential movement to be accountable for your own success--- Start now.
- GenresSelf HelpNonfiction
155 pages, Paperback
First published December 31, 2003
9 people are currently reading
156 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
April 22, 2021
To be more successful, improve relationships, set goals and fulfill dreams, these all require the practice of personal accountability. This book provides straightforward steps and examples of how to develop accountability in every aspect of life. A great resource for anyone that wants to see improvement in their life!
February 2, 2021
I wish I could give this book six stars. It is one of the most valuable books I have ever read. I believe I will create a much more meaningful and satisfying personal and professional life partly because of this book. It is a no-frills, step-by-step guide to getting things done. Anything: starting a business, finding your life mate, writing a book. The power of this book that sets it apart is that it early on has a chapter on self-forgiveness, as a purely practical skill without which you will never be able to take the risks and make the mistakes necessary to achieving any big goal. For me fear of failure is a big block, and while I'd heard of reframing failure as "learning," for some reason this book made it click. I will be rereading it each time I begin a new pursuit, and do the exercises again.
August 24, 2020
foundational concept of leadership and one of the most difficult.
Taking accountability for everything you encounter, even when it's not your fault, and owning, forgiving, learning, and taking action rather than blaming, denying, hiding, which keeps you in the victim loop. The goal is to view every situation with a choice to take the accountable path, taking action with intention.
Taking accountability for everything you encounter, even when it's not your fault, and owning, forgiving, learning, and taking action rather than blaming, denying, hiding, which keeps you in the victim loop. The goal is to view every situation with a choice to take the accountable path, taking action with intention.
March 26, 2012
As part of my set of mandatory classes that all the new employees take, I took The Power of Personal Accountability in June of 2008, accompanied by this book.
In general, I try to maintain a hefty level of skepticism, especially for things like this which reek of the touchy-feely. But, this one seems to have a very interesting hook to it.
In the system presented, personal accountability is based upon two mirror-paths of decision making, separated into an accountability loop, and a victim loop. All situations lead to intentions/choices, which lead to either path:
1: the victim loop, in wich choices go- ignore, deny, blame, rationalize, resist, hide...
2: the accountability loop, in which choices go- recognize, own, forgive, self-examine, learn, act...
with each path intended to be the mirror of the other. The purpose of the training is to move employees to spend less time as victims and more time accountable for their actions. One of the creators of the system, Mark Samuel, says: "The only perfect people are victims. The rest of us are still learning." I approached the instructor afterward and asked her if they get a lot of heat for appropriating the word 'victim' in such a manner, and she said that yes indeed, they do get quite a bit of heat, and proceeded to try to defend it to me.
...except that no defense needed. There's certainly plenty to be said that the only way to not continually become a victim of circumstances lies in the way we approach and overcome our circumstances.
The interesting thing about the training is that because it is mandatory for all the employees in our division early in their career, it becomes a common language, common toolset, to begin speaking both up and down the command chain about actions and behaviors which harm the effectiveness of the organization. The question becomes, how am I going to take and use the toolset?
There was also an excellent point made about some of the traps that people fall into when holding others accountable: it's important not to (always) be a rescuer. Particularly among people of high skill, it's easy to fall into a pattern of "if it's not getting done, I need to do it", which is a behavior which doen't scale well in complicated situations.
Also discussed was the fact that there are often two zones on a scale of pain- the zone of comfort, and the zone of punishment. In between, however, is an area the instructor called the safety zone of discomfort; and she argued that the accountable, effective organization spend a lot of time in this zone, and look to ways to expand this zone. In fact, if you have a lot of highly skilled employees the zone of comfort often resides in being the rescuer in situations- you're most comfortable when you're working hard at the fix, finding the answers yourself. While it's important to do this some of the time, she makes an excellent argument here that the most effective organizations aren't built by loners, but by a lot of different people sharing pieces of the solution.
Lots to parse and work through- both content wise, and in a very meta-sense, where it's becoming very clear that there's an intentional set of values here at the company. More than just the usual "these are our core values" kind of bullshitting way that most of my prior companies have used. Not sure how I feel about all that; and not sure how I feel about feeling about that, if you know what I mean.
In general, I try to maintain a hefty level of skepticism, especially for things like this which reek of the touchy-feely. But, this one seems to have a very interesting hook to it.
In the system presented, personal accountability is based upon two mirror-paths of decision making, separated into an accountability loop, and a victim loop. All situations lead to intentions/choices, which lead to either path:
1: the victim loop, in wich choices go- ignore, deny, blame, rationalize, resist, hide...
2: the accountability loop, in which choices go- recognize, own, forgive, self-examine, learn, act...
with each path intended to be the mirror of the other. The purpose of the training is to move employees to spend less time as victims and more time accountable for their actions. One of the creators of the system, Mark Samuel, says: "The only perfect people are victims. The rest of us are still learning." I approached the instructor afterward and asked her if they get a lot of heat for appropriating the word 'victim' in such a manner, and she said that yes indeed, they do get quite a bit of heat, and proceeded to try to defend it to me.
...except that no defense needed. There's certainly plenty to be said that the only way to not continually become a victim of circumstances lies in the way we approach and overcome our circumstances.
The interesting thing about the training is that because it is mandatory for all the employees in our division early in their career, it becomes a common language, common toolset, to begin speaking both up and down the command chain about actions and behaviors which harm the effectiveness of the organization. The question becomes, how am I going to take and use the toolset?
There was also an excellent point made about some of the traps that people fall into when holding others accountable: it's important not to (always) be a rescuer. Particularly among people of high skill, it's easy to fall into a pattern of "if it's not getting done, I need to do it", which is a behavior which doen't scale well in complicated situations.
Also discussed was the fact that there are often two zones on a scale of pain- the zone of comfort, and the zone of punishment. In between, however, is an area the instructor called the safety zone of discomfort; and she argued that the accountable, effective organization spend a lot of time in this zone, and look to ways to expand this zone. In fact, if you have a lot of highly skilled employees the zone of comfort often resides in being the rescuer in situations- you're most comfortable when you're working hard at the fix, finding the answers yourself. While it's important to do this some of the time, she makes an excellent argument here that the most effective organizations aren't built by loners, but by a lot of different people sharing pieces of the solution.
Lots to parse and work through- both content wise, and in a very meta-sense, where it's becoming very clear that there's an intentional set of values here at the company. More than just the usual "these are our core values" kind of bullshitting way that most of my prior companies have used. Not sure how I feel about all that; and not sure how I feel about feeling about that, if you know what I mean.
September 2, 2013
Personal accountability raises self-esteem better than just about anything else. Those who keep their word, more particularly to the self, wax strong in confidence and so does reputation. Those who seek to blame and see life from a victim's perspective are unable to reap the benefits of owning-up to their own contribution to any given situation. Accountability requires integrity and self-honesty. Want to be empowered to live life without remorse, lackluster or dissatisfaction? Then become more accountable NOW. Topics in the books include: procrastination, making and keeping commitments, admitting and correcting mistakes, taking responsibility etc Many great reminders of the importance of keeping oneself in line, and benefits of self discipline.
June 23, 2012
Had to read for work and really enjoyed it and strive to hold myself accountable
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews