Show Up for Yourself: Lessons in Self-Accountability

Apr 30

This month marks the 2-year celebration of founding Promote Leaders! Being an entrepreneur has been a dream, with its share of difficulties. After reflecting on this milestone, the topic of self-accountability was at the top of my list. Here are my lessons so we can all turn our commitments and ambitions into realities.

What I find very easy is showing up for others. If the team or a client needs me, I’m there, but what about showing up for yourself? This means taking accountability for your accomplishments but also the mishaps without blame, seeing challenges as a catalyst for growth, while keeping an opportunistic eye to the future. Taking that honest look in the mirror and pledging to make, and keep, those promises to yourself.

What’s incredible about this process is that self-accountability helps you fulfill commitments, builds resilience, self-trust, and creates a benchmark for others to follow.

Where to begin: self-awareness first, then goal setting

Staying firmly rooted in your values, interests, and capabilities will help you create realistic goals. Look deep to uncover your true motivations, not just the external factors like recognition or financial incentives. Those help, but it won’t keep you on track for the long term to becoming the person or leader you aspire to be.

This discovery will help with the very important task of resource allocation. We all have limited time, money, and attention. Where do you want to place it? Saying yes to one thing means saying no to another. We need to be precise and thoughtful, setting well defined goals. If you find yourself easily distracted or regularly putting off your commitments, revisit why you’ve set those goals and whether they are aligned with your intrinsic motivations.

With your honest intentions in mind, dream big then start small. What are the first few small steps you can take to set yourself on the path? What are the weekly, monthly, or quarterly milestones to help you see steady progress? This way you can monitor your progress, celebrate along the way and reward your small wins. Imagine, actually enjoying the process while working to achieve your goals!

I had to give myself a reality check when I wrote out my to-do list mid-year and it was 5 pages long! Feeling completely overwhelmed, I had to start over. Choosing a few core areas to start and then re-evaluating quarterly gave me room to breathe and see progress. Continue reading for celebrations too.

Creating a support system

Willpower is not enough. In addition to setting up systems and goals aligned with your internal motivations, build an external support system to help you stay focused on your toughest days. These confidants become almost co-creators who can provide transparent and sometimes brutal feedback when your excuses begin:

The first time your miss a deadline or break a promise
Start blaming external factors like senior management
Make a mistake and become defensive rather than apologize and learn from the experience

Self-accountability is a space of no-excuses! Holding yourself to a high standard but also welcoming your support system to help you achieve those goals. This community is also a place to share accomplishments and wins, marking even interim steps to maintain focus. This is a critical point for me, I tend to isolate when busy and my support system pushes me to take a break and refresh my creativity.

No one is perfect

Especially as an entrepreneur, I acutely feel the pressure to get everything done, and done ‘right’, bringing self-accountability to an entirely new level. I quickly realized the road to success is not a straight line, it’s filled with setbacks and unexpected changes. It’s through these obstacles that we build our self confidence and problem-solving skills. Facing these challenges head-on and proactively seeking feedback turn these experiences into springboard for personal development.

Clients, business partners, and mentors (people I trust) are frequent touchstones for feedback, even when it’s tough to hear. It always makes me better, going beyond a self-evaluation. Receiving that insight on how I am differentiated in the market alongside areas I need to improve, like my tech savvy, help me decide where to place efforts in personal development.

To help maintain perspective, I review old to-do lists. Looking back on the last month or so is a tangible way to view my accomplishments and I write down significant moments, like opening a retirement account for my business (no more company sponsored 401K), to keep as a reminder that I'm making forward progress.

It’s perfectly fine to reset your plan. With new information, change course, just revisit your original goals, values and motivations first. This agility will contribute to enduring success. This has led me down new adventures (like keynote speaking!) but it also gave me the confidence to decline work when it was misaligned with my areas of focus.

Lead by example

When taking self-accountability, those around you notice and will often follow your lead. Setting a culture where it is safe to learn, make mistakes, and help feedback become a regular part of your work environment. As a leader, this means:

You own tough messages, not blaming ‘management’ or the ‘market’
You speak up when you disagree, owning your opinions and sharing your experiences
Monitor your speech, focusing on learning, not blaming
Keep promises and meet deadlines
You apologize sincerely when you’ve made a mistake and openly share your learning

Showing you are constantly growing and self-evaluating is a strength that your teams will admire and strive to emulate. Helping your organization create psychological safety, trust, transparency, innovate faster, and create a sense of belonging.

Conclusion

Celebrating two years of my business reminds me that accountability is not just about adhering to a set of rules—it's about setting a personal standard of integrity and commitment. It’s about showing up for myself, being proactive in your development and meticulous in your execution. As you embrace accountability in your own ventures, remember it’s a journey of continual learning and adjustment. If you are seeking to enhance your accountability practices or wish to discuss personalized strategies, please reach out for an executive coaching consultation. Together, we can ensure that accountability is at the heart of your professional endeavors, just as it has been at mine.