Accountability Is The Key to Long-Term Greatness and Success!
One of the greatest benefits to having a mentor is the value of accountability. Accountability is high quality feedback from people who are committed to seeing you operate at your greatest potential. It includes advice and correction and counsel on how to execute at consistently high levels. I have set a personal goal to receive counsel and correction from wise people around me to be the best version of me I can be. My mentors have been instrumental in creating the person I am today.
Accountability concerns itself with responsibility, trust, and ethical behavior in both personal and professional settings. It is a key to living with integrity and keeping yourself on track with your values and goals. The consequences of living without accountability can be deeply regrettable and may take you far from where you want to end up.
"Without good direction, people lose their way; the more wise counsel you follow, the better your chances."
Proverbs 11:14 MSG
This verse has such a potency to it. One point that I particularly notice is the emphasis on getting good quality counsel, not just opinions. This can sometimes be the difference between the role of a mentor over a friend. (We need both, one person maybe both, but they play different roles in our lives.) The fact remains, we must identify sources of wise counsel, you may even pay a consultant fee or bring someone in whose expertise and accountability will set you on the right course. This verse in the amplified version helps to distinguish the type of counsel we should pursue:
“Where there is no [wise, intelligent] guidance, the people fall [and go off course like a ship without a helm], But in the abundance of [wise and godly] counselors there is victory.”
Proverbs 11:14 AMP
Blind Spots
One of the areas that accountability from a mentor is very helpful is the area of blind spots. A blind spot is an area that escapes our field of vision. As a result, things in this area often escape our attention. When it comes to the way we behave, lead and work – a weakness or disadvantageous tendency that falls into our blind spot can be catastrophic to achieving our goals. Companies, churches, organizations and governments have failed due to unaddressed issues in blind spots. A mentor that can speak to those areas safeguard you and the organization you work with.
Personally, I have a commitment to being accountable. I am accountable to my mentors, my pastor and my wife. At work I bring in a group that collects feedback from the people I work with. They help me to see areas of constraint in my leadership and illuminate blind spots so that I can work on them. I have learned from these reports and grown in areas of weakness. Proverbs says that this approach will help us in the future:
“Listen to advice and accept instruction, that you may gain wisdom in the future. Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.”
Proverbs 19:20-21 ESV
The price of greatness is responsibility.
Winston Churchill
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