Accountability: October Professionalism Skills
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“the quality or state of being accountable; an obligation to accept responsibility or to account for one’s actions.”
Merriam-Webster
“Some favorite expressions of small children: “It’s not my fault. . . They made me do it. . . I forgot.”
Some favorite expressions of adults: “It’s not my job. . . No one told me. . . It couldn’t be helped.”
True freedom begins and ends with personal accountability.“
- Dan Zadra
Accountability is essential in the web design and development field. As web designers and developers, we need to be able to accept responsibility for our actions, what we do, and even what we do not do. We owe it to our boss, our team, our clients, and ourselves. Accountability keeps us in check and helps us maintain a good reputation of authenticity, trustworthiness, and responsibility. Not many people want to hire someone to be responsible for their web site if they are not dependable. When clients hire us to design and develop their web sites, they trust that we will finish the job and take care of problems when they arise. If we do not have accountability, we may get into bad habits such as idleness or poor time management that can taint our reputation.
There are different types of accountability such as personal, team, and leadership. All three can be related to the web design and development field.
Personal accountability is when you are accountable to yourself: You accept responsiblity for your actions. When you personally make a mistake, you accept the responsibility for it instead of blaming others or making excuses. As designers and developers, we need to be accountable for our actions. Freelance designers and developers especially need to have strong personal accountability since they are their own bosses.
Team accountability is when the team as a whole has accountability. Usually there is a team leader that makes sure the team is doing what they are supposed to do. Listed below are some tips to be able to have team accountability according to Team Building Inc. http://www.teambuildinginc.com/article_team_accountability.htm
- Earn the trust of others
- Own up to mistakes and accept the consequences
- Focus on the future when mistakes happen- figure out a way to keep the mistakes from happening again
- Help others follow through and complete projects
- Talk Openly about responsibilities, performance standards, deadlines, and consequences of actions
- Be Supportive
Team accountability creates a productive, trustworthy, ethical, and reliable team.
Leadership accountability is when leaders are accountable for what they do as leaders. It is expected that leaders have more responsibility in their position. They have higher standards to meet than the rest of the team. It is very crucial that leaders take accountability very seriously. They have much influence on others and can either drive a team to be productive or not. They can lead a team to be ethical or unethical. A leader is responsible for the team and what they do. If the team makes a mistake, the leader is ultimately responsible. Leaders represent the team.
As web designers and developers we must get rid of the words: “it’s not my job”, “no one told me”, or “it couldn’t be helped.” We need to own up to our mistakes just as easily as we own up to our successes. We need to start looking at accountability as a good thing instead of as something that makes us look bad when we do something wrong. Accountability makes us better designers and developers. Accountability motivates us to do better and to take our jobs seriously. Accountability is the glue that holds together trustworthiness, authenticity, and responsibility in our reputations.
