If you were to ask any high performance team –
‘What makes them successful?’
Chances are, they will include accountability as an irreplaceable value. Accountability not only ensures that people are aware of their respective roles but also motivates them to be more responsible and pro-active. Accountability also allows team members to feel like they are a part of something important, a singular vision – something bigger than themselves. When done right, accountability can increase your team members’ skills and confidence.
As a leader, the onus lies on you to foster and enable a culture of accountability among your team members. But, how does one go about it? Here are 100 insightful quotes on accountability which may help you formulate the right plan –
1. It is wrong and immoral to seek to escape the consequences of one’s acts.
— Mahatma Gandhi
2. Leaders inspire accountability through their ability to accept responsibility before they place blame.
— Courtney Lynch
3. Accountability breeds response―ability.
— Stephen R. Covey
4. When it comes to privacy and accountability, people always demand the former for themselves and the latter for everyone else.
— David Brin
5. It is not only what we do, but also what we do not do, for which we are accountable.
— Moliere
6. The notion of accountability has emerged as a human tool to motivate people – do what you’re supposed to do or you’ll be held to account.
— Art Horn
7. Creating a culture of integrity and accountability not only improves effectiveness, it also generates a respectful, enjoyable and life-giving setting in which to work.
— Tom Hanson
8. The benefits and possibilities that are created by being personally accountable are countless.
— Jay Fiset
9. A body of men holding themselves accountable to nobody ought not to be trusted by anybody.
— Thomas Paine
11. Take accountability… Blame is the water in which many dreams and relationships drown.
— Steve Maraboli
12. Ninety-nine percent of all failures come from people who have a habit of making excuses.
— George Washington Carver
13. Being responsible sometimes means pissing people off.
— General Colin Powell
14. Responsibility equals accountability equals ownership. And a sense of ownership is the most powerful weapon a team or organization can have.
— Pat Summitt
15.mIn the years I’ve been thinking and talking about leadership, I’ve come to realize that the desperate need for accountable leaders is the fundamental challenge organizations are facing today.
— Vince Molinaro
16. Teams keep leaders accountable for the goal. Individuals connected to no one can change the goal without accountability.
— John C. Maxwell
17. Accountability, is the state or condition of being accountable or responsible. That is right. We are responsible for what goes on in our heads.
— John Vaulkner
18. To function effectively, a business requires leaders who are accountable for driving success.
— Barry Linetsky
19. Wisdom stems from personal accountability. We all make mistakes; own them… learn from them. Don’t throw away the lesson by blaming others.
— Steve Maraboli
21. On good teams coaches hold players accountable, on great teams’ players hold players accountable.
— Joe Dumars
22. Accountability separates the wishers in life from the action-takers that care enough about their future to account for their daily actions.
— John Di Lemme
23. Break the riddle of accountability, the thinking goes, and you will have solved one of the thorniest issues in modern business.
— Mihnea Moldoveanu
24. Good men prefer to be accountable.
— Michael Edwardes
25. It’s just that we’re all accountable for our own happiness. And being happy does matter. It’s up to each of us to find out what shape or form that takes.
— Peter Jennings
26. Simple organizational structure and clear accountability are necessary conditions for the exercise of effective leadership.
— John Adair
27. Success on any major scale requires you to accept responsibility . . .. In the final analysis, the one quality that all successful people have is the ability to take on responsibility.
— Michael Korda
28. We are all accountable for our actions; their affect and influence on our lives and the lives of others.
— Sameh Elsayed
29. Understanding the true meaning of accountability makes us strong and enables us to learn.
— Sameh Elsayed
31. If you are building a culture where honest expectations are communicated and peer accountability is the norm, then the group will address poor performance and attitudes.
— Henry Cloud
32. Accountability means to say what you do, do what you say.
— Pearl Zhu
33. You must be accountable constantly to those demands that are made on your time and it is only you that can allocate what time can be used for what purpose.
— Byron Pulsifer
34. Good men are bound by conscience and liberated by accountability.
— Wes Fessler
35. Where there is no accountability, there will also be no responsibility.
— Sunday Adelaja
36. Some want, to be exempt. They do not want to excel; they do not want to exert. They want to be considered excellent, for desiring to be held exempt, from all accountability.
— Justin K. McFarlane Beau
37. He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else.
— Benjamin Franklin
38. Intentions do not insulate us from the consequences of our actions.
— Jon D Harrison
39. The only way we succeed as a group is not simply following directions, but in keeping each other accountable for our actions.
— A.J. Darkholme
41. Make yourself accountable and your employees will hold themselves to a high standard.
— David J. Greer
42. Open collaboration encourages greater accountability, which in turn fosters trust.
— Ron Garan
43. Accountability is the issue! If you can’t find a way to get people to be accountable, you’re going to find it hard to make anything else work, let alone your business.
— Robert Lebow
44. I believe that accountability is the basis of all meaningful human achievement.
— Sam Silverstein
45. To take responsibility for yourself as a leader and person; you need to learn to unlearn bad habits, and learn from your mistakes.
— Andrea Reibmayr
46. If you can’t stand the heat, you’d better get out of the kitchen.
— Harry S. Truman.
47. For most people, blaming others is a subconscious mechanism for avoiding accountability. In reality, the only thing in your way is YOU.
— Steve Maraboli
48. On one side of accountability is courage, on the other is freedom.
— Jean Hamilton.
49. To be accountable means that we are willing to be responsible to another person for our behavior and it implies a level of submission to another’s opinions and viewpoints.
— Wayde Goodall
51. What if we had to give an account each night before we went to sleep of the one thing that we did to make life brighter for someone else?
— Catherine Pulsifer
52. Big pay and little responsibility are circumstances seldom found together.
— Napoleon Hill
53. When accountability is present, people keep their eyes on a very clear prize. They know what they are working toward and how they are going to get there.
— Henry J. Evans
54. We are all responsible and accountable for what we do or say even if those behaviors occur in stressful times.
— Byron Pulsifer
56. Accept responsibility for your life. Know that it is you who will get you where you want to go, no one else.
— Les Brown
57. The benefit of truly accountable leaders is that they are able to create effective structures where their staff know what is expected of them, and can improve the business for customers.
— Jane Storm
58. Neither age nor experience matters when it comes to being personally accountable for any and all outcomes― no excuses whatsoever― be they positive or negative, nor shifting blame to other people or to external factors.
— Kory Livingstone
59. Accountability is a statement of personal promise, both to yourself and to the people around you, to deliver specific defined results.
— Brian Dive
61. To be concerned only about one’s own life, is to deny that anyone else is worthy. However, you cannot be held accountable for someone else’s life, or how they feel or react to a variety of different circumstances or situations.
— Byron Pulsifer
62. My experience is that accountability is an extremely powerful tool to align an organization toward its objectives.
— Susan Gomez
63. In a fast―changing and increasingly complex world, accountability of leaders is acquiring a renewed focus.
— R Gopalakrishnan
64. The individual is not accountable to society for his actions in so far as these concern the interests of no person but himself.
— John Stuart Mill
65. Be accountable for doing the right things. This means ethical execution of the activities that will actually support the goals you have chosen for yourself.
— Sam Silverstein
66. True love does not only encompass the things that make you feel good, it also holds you to a standard of accountability.
— Monica Johnson
67. Democratic accountability means that governments must be popularly accepted, with citizens empowered to replace corrupt or incompetent rulers.
— Raghuram Rajan
68. A friend can inspire enthusiasm as well as accountability, and that serves to challenge you.
— Deanna Cosso
69. People are more inclined to pass the buck than they are to take responsibility. The fact is, though, passing the buck doesn’t build your character or give you the opportunity to learn from your mistakes.
— Marshall Goldsmith
71. Accountability is a two―way street. As a leader, you want to know that you can count on people to do what they said they would do. Likewise, your colleagues want to know that they can count on you as the leader to do what you have promised them.
— Greg Bustin
72. Consumer accountability drives quality and efficiency.
— Pete Hoekstra
73. Building a culture in which people take accountability to deliver on its promises is hard work and can be difficult to accomplish. Only when every person is held accountable to themselves, their peers, and their shared possibility can the impossible become possible.
— Ginger Graham
74. Transparency increases credibility and accountability.
– Park Won-soon
75. The best kind of accountability on a team is peer―to―peer. Peer pressure is more efficient and effective than going to the leader, anonymously complaining, and having them stop what they are doing to intervene.
— Patrick LencioniIt was accountability that Nixon feared.” ―Bob Woodward
76. Accountability in friendship is the equivalent of love without strategy.
— Anita BrooknerThe job of media is the accountability of government.” ―Jeff Zucker
77. There are two primary choices in life: to accept conditions as they exist, or accept the responsibility for changing them.
— Denis Waitley
78. A person may cause evil to others not only by his actions but by his inaction, and in either case he is justly accountable to them for injury.
— John Stuart Mill
79. No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible.
— Stanislaw LeM
81. Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws.
— Plato
82. It is easy to dodge our responsibilities, but we cannot dodge the consequences of dodging our responsibilities.
— Sir Josiah Stamp
83. Life is not accountable to us. We are accountable to life.
— Denis Waitley
84. Our tradition calls for a commitment to accountability. This is not an assumption ― this is a promise that I will be there for you; and I can count on you being there for me.
— Bob Ladouceur
85. Every one of us is responsible for everyone else in every way. Everyone is really responsible for everyone and everything.
— Father Zossima
86. An honest man is not accountable for the vice and folly of his trade, and therefore ought not to refuse the exercise of it
— Michel de Montaigne
87. A president cannot defend a nation if he is not held accountable to its laws.
― DaShanne Stokes
88. Candor and accountability in a democracy is very important. Hypocrisy has no place.
— Alan Dershowitz
89. When people feel accountable and included, it is more fun.
— Alan Mulally
91. You can’t talk about leadership without talking about responsibility and accountability…you can’t separate the two. A leader must delegate responsibility and provide the freedom to make decisions, and then be held accountable for the results.
— Buck Rodgers
92. If we want unity, we must all be unifiers. If we want accountability, each of us must be accountable for all we do.
— Christine Gregoire
93. Having authority implies accountability. If you reject the blame for failures under your watch, people reject your leadership.
— Rick Warren
94. You must take personal responsibility. You cannot change the circumstances, the seasons, or the wind, but you can change yourself. That is something you have charge of.
— Jim Rohn
95. There’s not a chance we’ll reach our full potential until we stop blaming each other and start practicing personal accountability.
— John Miller
96. Perhaps nothing in our society is more needed for those in positions of authority than accountability.
― Larry Burkett
97. Dignity is the reward of holding oneself accountable to conscience.
— Wes Fesler
98. Accountability is a key concept in moving an organization forward, especially in a challenging business climate.
— Cindy Tucker
99. Open collaboration encourages greater accountability, which in turn fosters trust.
— Ron Garan
