There has never being anyone who became successful without the help of another who has being successful. This is the concept postulated by mentorship.
Photo Credit: SHEA Mentoring Program
No one became successful outside the tutorage of another person who has already being successful. Either by direct mentoring or indirect mentoring, every successful person became successful by yielding to mentorship.
Sir Isaac Newton said "If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants". Imagine Sir Isaac Newton with the great feats he achieved in the field of science, he still considers himself a product of mentorship. This exemplifies the great need for mentoring and mentorship in the raising of successful men and women in every sphere of human existence.
My focus today is not on the broad topic of mentorship as a prerequisite for being successful but of a facet of mentoring which is attributed to its potent power of making men successful and that is accountability.
Accountability is defined by the Merriam-webster online dictionary as the quality of being accountable that is subject to giving an answer especially about an obligation or willingness to accept responsibility or to account for one's actions.
In simple terms, accountability is the quality of being able to give answers and explanations, bearing responsibility for both your actions and inactions.
How does accountability help you navigate successfully through the pathway of becoming successful?
I would be sharing three(3) benefits which I consider most often neglected as benefits of accountability. I'd like to refer to these benefits as "The Underlying Benefits of Accountability". Sojourn with me as I unveil them.
BENEFIT #1 – HEIGHTENS PERFORMANCE
Bearing in mind that you would have to answer for your inability to accomplish certain undertakings would instill in you the drive to do more work thus heightening your performance.
Knowing fully well that failing to hit the benchmark of expectation calibrated for you by your mentor would cause you to fall out of favour in the presence of your mentor is enough to spur you into doing more work.
Accountability heightens performance. It makes you do more so you do not get to present excuses as to why you failed to accomplish the tasks set before you.
Students know that there would be a day of accountability where they are expected to pass examinations on all they have been taught. Even if a student dislikes a course, he/she is mandated to study hard so he performs well on the day of accountability.
Thus, there is no arguing that accountability is key to spurring and heightening performance.
BENEFIT #2 – BIRTHS RESPONSIBILITY
"If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your troubles, you wouldn't sit for a month" – Theodore Roosevelt
One of the lacking yet needful traits in our lives is the trait of being responsible. Among youths and adolescents there's a serious departure from the characteristic of being responsible to being too carefree, less concerned, unserious, and negligent of important issues.
Without responsibility no success can be recorded. Theodore Roosevelt was right with the quote at the beginning of this point. You are responsible for most of your troubles whether you decide to take responsibility for them or not. As much as you are responsible for your troubles and misfortunes you are also responsible for your success. Sadly, there's little or no inclination to being responsible in young people today.
We are quick to blame the government, blame parents, blame uncles and anuties for our troubles and ill-luck forgetting that a man is the architect of his own woes. So one can take responsibility for your life except you.
The bitter truth is: you will never rise above your level of responsibility. Becoming successful is a function of being responsible. Responsible for your actions, your failures, your successes, your mind, your emotions, responsible for your life.
Responsibility is about setting priorities right and taking the needed action to actualize them.
Accountability births responsibility and responsibility carries with it so many benefits which cuts across;
BENEFIT #3 – ELIMINATES IDLENESS
Accountability spurs you out of idleness. It eliminates idleness by keeping you engaged. You cannot want pleasure when you are supposed to work seeing that you'd have to give account for your workdone. You don't stand idly when you are expected to work and bring back feedback.
The very fact that you might have a disappointed mentor if you do not meet up to his/her expectation tremendously compels you to act and work rather than be idle you become engaged.
I know I have to give account to God for the gifts and talents that He has deposited in me and so I can't afford to sit idly. This knowledge keeps me engaged at all times.
There's a popular saying that "an idle mind is the devil's workshop". In order to avoid being the devil's workshop you have to get engaged in a positive, productive work spurred as a necessity by being accountable.
Conclusively, accountability is a facet of mentorship which exposes you to the realities of the work which must be done as you journey to becoming successful.
Photo Credit: SHEA Mentoring Program
No one became successful outside the tutorage of another person who has already being successful. Either by direct mentoring or indirect mentoring, every successful person became successful by yielding to mentorship.
Sir Isaac Newton said "If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants". Imagine Sir Isaac Newton with the great feats he achieved in the field of science, he still considers himself a product of mentorship. This exemplifies the great need for mentoring and mentorship in the raising of successful men and women in every sphere of human existence.
My focus today is not on the broad topic of mentorship as a prerequisite for being successful but of a facet of mentoring which is attributed to its potent power of making men successful and that is accountability.
Accountability is defined by the Merriam-webster online dictionary as the quality of being accountable that is subject to giving an answer especially about an obligation or willingness to accept responsibility or to account for one's actions.
In simple terms, accountability is the quality of being able to give answers and explanations, bearing responsibility for both your actions and inactions.
How does accountability help you navigate successfully through the pathway of becoming successful?
I would be sharing three(3) benefits which I consider most often neglected as benefits of accountability. I'd like to refer to these benefits as "The Underlying Benefits of Accountability". Sojourn with me as I unveil them.
BENEFIT #1 – HEIGHTENS PERFORMANCE
Bearing in mind that you would have to answer for your inability to accomplish certain undertakings would instill in you the drive to do more work thus heightening your performance.
Knowing fully well that failing to hit the benchmark of expectation calibrated for you by your mentor would cause you to fall out of favour in the presence of your mentor is enough to spur you into doing more work.
Accountability heightens performance. It makes you do more so you do not get to present excuses as to why you failed to accomplish the tasks set before you.
Students know that there would be a day of accountability where they are expected to pass examinations on all they have been taught. Even if a student dislikes a course, he/she is mandated to study hard so he performs well on the day of accountability.
Thus, there is no arguing that accountability is key to spurring and heightening performance.
BENEFIT #2 – BIRTHS RESPONSIBILITY
"If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your troubles, you wouldn't sit for a month" – Theodore Roosevelt
One of the lacking yet needful traits in our lives is the trait of being responsible. Among youths and adolescents there's a serious departure from the characteristic of being responsible to being too carefree, less concerned, unserious, and negligent of important issues.
Without responsibility no success can be recorded. Theodore Roosevelt was right with the quote at the beginning of this point. You are responsible for most of your troubles whether you decide to take responsibility for them or not. As much as you are responsible for your troubles and misfortunes you are also responsible for your success. Sadly, there's little or no inclination to being responsible in young people today.
We are quick to blame the government, blame parents, blame uncles and anuties for our troubles and ill-luck forgetting that a man is the architect of his own woes. So one can take responsibility for your life except you.
The bitter truth is: you will never rise above your level of responsibility. Becoming successful is a function of being responsible. Responsible for your actions, your failures, your successes, your mind, your emotions, responsible for your life.
Responsibility is about setting priorities right and taking the needed action to actualize them.
Accountability births responsibility and responsibility carries with it so many benefits which cuts across;
- Time Management
- Prioritized Living
- Determination
- Accomplishment of Set Goals
BENEFIT #3 – ELIMINATES IDLENESS
Accountability spurs you out of idleness. It eliminates idleness by keeping you engaged. You cannot want pleasure when you are supposed to work seeing that you'd have to give account for your workdone. You don't stand idly when you are expected to work and bring back feedback.
The very fact that you might have a disappointed mentor if you do not meet up to his/her expectation tremendously compels you to act and work rather than be idle you become engaged.
I know I have to give account to God for the gifts and talents that He has deposited in me and so I can't afford to sit idly. This knowledge keeps me engaged at all times.
There's a popular saying that "an idle mind is the devil's workshop". In order to avoid being the devil's workshop you have to get engaged in a positive, productive work spurred as a necessity by being accountable.
Conclusively, accountability is a facet of mentorship which exposes you to the realities of the work which must be done as you journey to becoming successful.
EmoticonEmoticon