Recently, there has been much ado about the work of the special federal government agency DOGE. The goals of the department seem to be two-fold: to find waste and fraud while also bringing accountability to those employed by the federal government

While I will not venture into politics, I must say that it has got me thinking on the subject of accountability. in all areas of life.

I’ve concluded that many today lack any sense of accountability for their actions. Sadly it’s often someone else’s fault when something goes wrong.

Late for school or work? Not my fault. Failed the test? Not my fault. Messed up a relationship? Not my fault.

On and on and on we go.

None of those failures were the fault of the person who failed, at least not in their minds. So did they even fail? After all, the failure was on someone or something else. Accountability is something that I feel is missing from many aspects of our society.

We hear regularly of the person who commits a wrong or fails only to seek an excuse as to why it occurred. Far too seldom we hear of the person who steps up and says “I was wrong” or “it’s my fault” or “I screwed up.” You see to do that is to accept accountability.

Too many people today simply refuse to accept accountability for the results of their actions or lack thereof. Rather, what many seek to do is to find somebody or something to blame their mistakes or failures on and look for an excuse. I think excuses all have something in common: they stink.

People can see through excuses and don’t want to hear others offer excuses when fault needs to be accepted. Conversely, people will most often respect those who are willing to be held accountable for their actions.

I’ve been thinking of accountability as it relates to sports, particularly in terms of coaches and athletes. Simply put, the best players and coaches will accept accountability for their actions or lack thereof. That includes actions that may have resulted in failure or loss. Sadly though, there are lots of players and coaches for that matter who would rather play the blame game.

They have a willingness to be the first to take the credit when things go well or the game is won, however when they have a bad game, loss or otherwise fail to obtain a goal, they are quick to look for an excuse as to why it happened.

It couldn’t possibly be as a result of something they did or perhaps failed to do. Why? Because it’s easier to blame than accept blame. Is it the honest way to go? No. Is it the way to go to gain others respect? Certainly not.

The idea of accountability is very important when it comes to leadership. Finding leaders is an increasingly difficult challenge. I believe that one of the major reasons for this is because many don’t want to accept the responsibilities that come with being a leader. One such responsibility is accountability. What we end up with in many cases are people being installed into leadership positions who lack the ability to lead because for one they will not hold themselves accountable for their actions.

You know who does hold them accountable for their actions? Those who they are charged with leading. So what then is the result? People in leadership positions that lack the respect of those they are to lead and thus in essence you have a leadership void.

A place where I often see this play out is with the player that is always squawking at teammates to do this better and do that better. Yet this individual makes the same mistakes, but doesn’t hold themselves accountable. Thus those who believe they are leading by failing to accept accountability are failing their team. They are not a good leader.

What they really need to do before expecting others to follow them is to look in the mirror first and correct the mistakes that they are making before expecting others to follow.

Probably the most obvious situation where a lack of accountability rears its ugly head is with playing time or perhaps even a starting position. All too familiar is the voice that utters the words “I don’t play or I don’t start because the coach doesn’t like me.”

Could it be that the player is not starting because they didn’t do the required strength training to get stronger, doesn’t practice hard enough, has a bad attitude or misses practices? To be honest, it could be any one or more of those things keeping the player from starting or even playing. So what do the good players do?

They accept accountability for their actions or lack thereof. They don’t blame others and they accept that it is on them and they fix what is wrong.

Coaches must also hold themselves accountable. Coaches are responsible for putting their players in the best situations to be successful and win. Good coaches don’t just watch their players and or team fail only to sit back and do nothing but blame the players. Perhaps the coach is faced with a team that has no talent. In sports, that sometimes does occur. It is particularly the case in situations like youth sports where a coach can’t recruit.

With that said, if a coach doesn’t turn over every stone possible in an attempt to get the most out of their players and or team, then what they are doing is either practicing negligence or failing to acknowledge their role in the players and team’s failure. Good coaches are willing to look into the mirror to see what they can do better.

Maybe there are no answers to be found short of recruiting, but they must look and look hard. That is accepting accountability. I see it this way, if you don’t want to be accountable for your team’s failures, then go hide when your team is successful and wins.

A willingness to accept accountability for one’s actions will do at least two things, both good.

First, it will allow the person to become better. Second, it will allow the person to gain the respect necessary to hold others accountable.

My advice is be accountable for your actions or lack thereof. While it might seem difficult at first, in the end, you will likely find that doing so will be quite liberating.