Accepting Accountability and Taking Ownership

Below is an article about the San Diego State football team and how they are addressing the issue of accountability. Accountability is accepting responsibility for one's actions, which is something that young athletes struggle with some times. One writer defined it best by stating, "at the bottom line, it is credibility that matters and credibility that provides the foundation of personal leadership." For leaders, it is critical that you have integrity and character. Therefore, leaders must be held accountable and behave in ways that are consistent with the values of responsibility, which is how one establishes intergrity and character. Despite one's drive for perfect leadership, people experience failures. People make bad judgement, fail to do what they say there are going to do or what they intended to do. These failures impact a leaders credibility. However, it is how a leader responds to these failures that determines whether or not their credibility can be restored. A leader regains trust by accepting responsibility for their failures. When a leader fails to accept responsibility by placing blame, pointing fingers or making excuses, trust can be broken.

The failures of the San Diego State football program since 1998 can be blamed on many things: lack of resources and leadership, questionable hiring, recruiting and player commitment.
Each would seem to have at least one thread in common – accountability, or lack thereof. If there aren't enough members of the team taking responsibility for team problems, those problems can and usually do persist.
Which is why head coach Chuck Long has installed “leadership training” for senior players. It involves dividing the Aztecs into six teams of around 15 players, each headed by about three senior leaders. Each player gets a point per week but loses points for negative behaviors, such as being late to meetings or falling behind in the classroom.
“When you have accountability like that within your own team, now they start to do all the right things,” Long said.
Long said it also forces the seniors into “leadership roles and having them take ownership of the team.” If younger players slack off, senior leaders are expected to get after them for hurting their team's point total.
The competition started in the spring and will go through the end of the year. After yesterday's morning practice, the senior leaders held a draft to select this year's newcomers. The winner at the end gets bragging rights.
“It brings accountability on the seniors and the other players,” said starting senior guard Mike Schmidt, who leads one team along with senior defensive lineman Siaosi Fifita and senior cornerback Vonnie Holmes.
“It shows you that if you mess up, your whole team is affected by that. You get guys to look up to the seniors more, and it just brings the team together. It's good times, and it's real competitive.”
Long said the team's accountability is “much higher” than it was his first season in 2006. It's all part of the larger team-building exercises Long has tried since then. Besides accountability, the idea is to build trust and relationships. That first year, the Aztecs played softball together, competed against each other in Olympic-style games and took a trip to the Navy SEAL training base. This year, they opened camp with practices at Camp Pendleton.