Accountability – takes honesty

Accountability takes honesty. Being willing to accept accountability takes a lot of acceptance. Of yourself. It’s about getting real and owning up to what role you have played in almost everything in your life.

I was recently thinking about how much we depend on technology, yet we don’t use it wisely. For example, attending appointments. The majority of us have mobile phones yet many people do not use the calendar feature of putting their pre-scheduled appointments into their calendar.

Many service industries, hairdressers, physiotherapists and specialists will either phone or send an SMS to remind people of their upcoming appointment.

Independence or dependent?

We, humans, are fascinating creatures and fit into a few categories. An independent person would enter the scheduled appointment into their diary. Maybe you could call them a control freak, or you could think of them as organised.

A person who is happy to be dependent won’t worry about entering appointments. They’ll go with the flow and live day by day. You might call them slack, or flexible.

Then again are the services themselves responsible for treating people as though they are irresponsible? Or are their businesses suffering because they have a small business? Do they have a lot of ‘no shows’ who just don’t turn up or give sufficient notice so that other clients could benefit?

Thinking ahead

I wonder why people do what they do. Have the people who put appointments in their diary experienced what it’s like to work in a small business and have ‘no shows’? Or are they just thoughtful and considerate? Then again, they might be control freaks who like to be in control of their day.

Do others feel stifled if they have ‘commitments’? Do they not have busy lives and are happy to live day by day? Or could they have brilliant memories where they don’t need to put an appointment time into their calendar, let alone also setting an alert beforehand.

Which one are you? Are you a mixture of both? Do you remember some appointments and forget others? Is that because you prioritise some more than others? Who do you impact and are they missing out because you don’t show and don’t give enough time for them to offer it to someone that might be on a waiting list? What accountability do you take with setting, and then attending those appointments?