Embrace Intense Accountability: Transform Your Finance and Accounting Career

 In this episode, we're examining the transformative power of intense accountability in the realm of finance and accounting careers. We'll delve into how owning your mindset, setting clear goals, and establishing a chain of accountability can catapult you out of your comfort zone and propel you towards success.

We'll explore the fine line between making excuses and owning up to failures, and how the right mindset can encourage us to take more risks, essential for a thriving career. We'll also touch upon the concept of professional conduct and the role of accountability within our professional fields. Whether you are starting out or are a seasoned professional, this episode is brimming with unique insights and fresh perspectives designed to empower you to take charge of your career and your life. Step into the realm of intense accountability and let it shape your journey to success.

Episode outline:

1. What is intense accountability,
2. Own your mindset, goal setting, achievements, AND failures,
3. Accountability gets us out of our comfort zone, so we take risk,
4. Our professional conduct requires accountability too, and
5. Become a more sought-after finance leader. 

Please connect with me on:

1. Instagram: stephen.mclain
2. Twitter: smclainiii
3. Facebook: stephenmclainconsultant
4. LinkedIn: stephenjmclainiii

For more resources, please visit Finance Leader Academy:  financeleaderacademy.com. 

1. On the website, you can download the Become a Finance Leader Guide. You can use this guide to build your Finance Leadership skills so you can help senior leaders develop and execute the strategy.
2. I also offer a course, Advance Your Finance and Accounting Career: Developing a Promotion Strategy that Sets You Apart.

Transcript

Stephen McLain: 0:04

Do you want to succeed in your career? We all want to succeed and most want to have a growth career track in our chosen fields of finance and accounting, but often we get distracted or we are afraid to take risks that will move us beyond our comfort zone. This is why intense accountability can help you track as a high performer. You know you have the desire to achieve because you have had incredible results in the past, but what you need now is to get hyper focused and create a system that holds you accountable so you achieve your goals and be on the career track that you dream about often. Please enjoy the episode.

Stephen McLain: 0:47

Welcome to the Finance Leader Podcast, where leadership is bigger than the numbers. I am your host, Stephen McLain. This is the podcast for developing leaders in finance and accounting. Please consider following me on Twitter, facebook, instagram and LinkedIn. My user names and the links are in this episode's show notes.

Stephen McLain: 1:08

This is episode number 113 and I will be talking about why you need intense accountability and self-discipline so you can succeed, and I will highlight the following topics. Number one what is intense accountability? Number two own your mindset, goal setting, achievements and failures. Number three accountability gets us out of our comfort zone, so we take risk. Number four our professional conduct requires accountability too. And five become a more sought after finance leader. Mr Bob Proctor said accountability is the glue that bonds commitment to results.

Stephen McLain: 1:49

Welcome again to another episode of the Finance Leader podcast. My desire is for you to grow your leadership skills, not just your technical skills, so you move beyond being an analyst or a staff accountant, or even beyond holding a team manager role. You are meant for something bigger. Leadership, combined with our technical skills and business acumen, can help you move into more senior and executive roles, and you have to believe in yourself. You need confidence and show off that confidence when facing a tough problem. The ultimate goal is to become a sought after, highly skilled finance leader who can lead change during any situation. A sought after finance leader is well skilled across technical skills, soft skills and leadership skills. They can lead in a crisis, they understand strategy, they know how to lead large organizations, they possess integrity and they own their results and the performance of the organization as a whole. Hey, I hope you enjoyed the last few bonus episodes that I put out. Bonus episode 65 was about preparing for unpredictable change in the workplace. In bonus episode 66, I discussed earning or professional credentials. In bonus episode 67 was about team transformation and in bonus episode number 68, I talked about key end of the year activities. Please enjoy these short bonus episodes.

Stephen McLain: 3:14

We must take extreme ownership of our goals, our mindset, our attitude, our ability to take risks and definitely we need to own our failures. No more blaming others or a situation, no more blaming our bosses who don't meet our expectations, and no more blaming others for a lost opportunity. Okay, so you did not accomplish everything you set out to, so what are you going to do about it? What are you going to change? How are you going to own your future? So you make the necessary changes to move forward, you may need to adopt a mindset of intense accountability.

Stephen McLain: 3:51

Goal accomplishment often comes down to discipline and accountability, plus amazing habits that set you up every day for success. How we address accountability means we are going to own our career and own when something doesn't go our way. We are not going to make horrible excuses on why something didn't go well. I want you to do an assessment of what happened, but not make excuses. Now, what is the difference between making an excuse and figuring out what happened so you can do better? It's about who you assign the blame or, in fact, responsibility to. If you assign blame to an external source, it is an excuse, and when we assign blame externally, we don't accept our control over what could have been done better. It's when we accept responsibility for our behavior, for our work effort, for being organized and ready to accomplish the tasks of the day, then that is when we set ourselves up for success.

Stephen McLain: 4:47

Now, what habits do you practice that helps you create an environment of self-discipline? How do you stay focused? How do you remove distractions and how do you plan your day and week to maximize what you can accomplish? What is your method for staying on track to achieve incredible results? Self-discipline, more accountability and setting goals can translate to more risk. So we leave our comfort zone, which is a great move. I want us all to do that. We can all do this. I know it. I like to list out my tasks and schedule when I need to do. Plus this is a big requirement have an accountability partner and mentor to help you talk about what you're trying to accomplish. You need someone who believes in you, and that someone must also have the ability to have honest conversations with you. And now we'll share one more time. Don't forget to complete any remaining CPEs for the year and let's get ready for goal setting in 2024.

Stephen McLain: 5:44

I love goal accomplishment and I love to self-analyze myself when things are not headed in the right direction. We need to self-analyze when something is not going in the right direction with our life and our career. It helps when we have a mentor or close friend who will help us see the truth Not a person who intentionally tries to hurt us, but someone who holds us accountable. Now, one of my favorite movies is the Devil Wears Prada. Andy Sacks is the assistant to Miranda, the tough and unempathetic editor of Runway Magazine. There was a moment early on in the movie where Andy unloads her troubles to Nigel, the art director, on how horrible Miranda is treating her. Nigel refuses to allow Andy to be the victim. He puts it right back on Andy to own her own behavior and her level of effort. Andy eventually owns it. We all need a Nigel as a close confidant who will help us see where we can do better.

Stephen McLain: 6:42

Now let's talk about why you need intense accountability. Number one what is intense accountability? Intense accountability is when we take extreme responsibility for our careers and our lives. No excuses are allowed. We figure out what happened and what is happening and make adjustments. We own the outcomes and the planning and execution that it takes to get there. Those who practice intense accountability don't shift the blame. This will empower you to succeed. Nothing will get in your way. You will be more confident and what you need to do will be more clear. Intense accountability means I will set goals, take the initiative and get moving forward. I will own my results. I will block time to work on my goals. I will record my results and I will find an accountability partner to work with me.

Stephen McLain: 7:32

Number two own your mindset goal setting, achievements and failures. It is up to you to set and accomplish your goals. If you are waiting for someone else to do it for you, you will be waiting a long time. What do you do when something doesn't go as planned or, in fact, ends up as a failure? This is important to think through and admit to yourself. You have to do the exercise of what you do and start to own this part of your professional life. How do you react to your personal or career failure? Do you accept responsibility or do you shift blame? Perform the self-analysis on how you handle failure and what can you do better to own it. I have a great accountability partner who helps me to see things differently. This may be what you need also.

Stephen McLain: 8:23

Number three accountability gets us out of our comfort zone, so we take risk. When we own our future, we get to move forward. It takes accountability, with a little risk taking, to ready ourselves for the next great opportunity. The comfort zone can be appealing. Sometimes no one gives us anything that challenges us. We get to do our usual tasks and we collect our normal paycheck Easy, too easy, actually, way too easy. Why would we do this? Because we are scared to take on something difficult? Well, maybe, but when we adopt an intense accountability outlook and mindset, we are more likely to move beyond that easy, no-challenge comfort zone. And that is where I want all of us to be. Look at yourself with great intent. Why are you not moving forward? Why are you still stuck where you are at? Why haven't you moved beyond your current situation? How are you going to hold yourself accountable to take on more risk in your career?

Stephen McLain: 9:26

Number four our professional conduct requires accountability too. Not only do we need to be accountable in our career, but also within finance and accounting professions, and as we navigate our roles, we need to uphold the highest standards of professional conduct and integrity. Internal controls are needed so we safeguard company assets. We must uphold these internal controls and uphold the highest standards for each other. Also, we are responsible for implementing and upholding internal controls so that company assets are safeguarded. Who is keeping us accountable? We often need to keep each other accountable, and that is why intense accountability is needed. So much here, too.

Stephen McLain: 10:10

5. Become a more sought-after finance leader. Leaders accept responsibility and make an action plan. Organizations are looking for leaders who take personal responsibility for achieving company goals and objectives. They don't want people who lack personal accountability and can't take ownership for helping to deliver the strategy. If you want to be sought after for a senior leader role in the future, you must develop a mindset of success by taking charge and taking ownership over your areas of responsibility, which means you celebrate the wins, and we do this by properly giving credit to those who helped achieve those wins. But we also, and most importantly, accept the failures, do the analysis on why something failed and lead the development of an action plan to get everyone on the right track again, and we do this while preserving everyone's dignity. A leader brings calm to the storm. A leader takes charge in a crisis. A leader does not run away from failure but tries to learn much from why something failed and then uses leadership to rally the team back to high achievement again through a realistic action plan. One of the great results of us as leaders assuming intense accountability of our own actions and our own performance is that our team members will see that and our culture can begin to shift. We need to talk about accepting accountability in every opportunity when addressing our team. If everyone took personal responsibility and accountability for their careers and lives, we could have a huge shift toward greatness.

Stephen McLain: 11:48

Now for action today. How do you motivate yourself to achieve high results? Do you have a process of intense accountability so you accept responsibility for your life and career, or do you find yourself blaming others or something else why something didn't work out the way you wanted it to? I recommend that you do a self-analysis on how you handle setbacks so you can figure out what you need to do better to own your performance and results. Please check out financeleaderacademycom when you get a chance. We want to help you with your goal planning and career advancement. You can find all the previous episodes of the Finance Leader podcast and the free Finance Leader Guide. Become a Finance Leader. Please sign up for the weekly email so I can share a short suggestion each week. I promise that my emails are short and can be read and easily understood quickly.

Stephen McLain: 12:43

Today, I talked about why you need intense accountability and self-discipline so you can succeed, and I highlighted the following points. Number one what is intense accountability? Number two own your mindset, goal setting, achievements and failures. Number three accountability gets us out of our comfort zone, so we take risk. Number four our professional conduct requires accountability too. And five become a more sought after finance leader.

Stephen McLain: 13:11

Intense accountability has some amazing effects on us. I want you to learn to see things from a different perspective. This is how scientists make their breakthrough discoveries and this is how I want you to grow as a leader, which will help you succeed and be ready for the next big role. Look at yourself and your current professional situation from a different perspective. What can you do differently? Accountability means you are setting goals, schedule what you need to get done and find someone whom you can trust so you can update what you want to get done. Ask this person for feedback on your progress. Add some perspective to what you are trying to get done. What can accountability do to help you and your situation to move forward?

Stephen McLain: 13:58

Again? This begins with us. We need to make the personal commitment to include intense accountability in our professional and personal lives. We need to do the work and take the responsibility to get it done, without blaming an external factor. What is your long-term goal? What is holding you back from accomplishing this goal? Anything Good Now go do it. Next episode I'll be talking about finance agility and what it means for finance leaders who are lifting their organizations to a different level. I hope you enjoyed the finance leader podcast. I'm dedicated to helping you grow your leadership skills, to change your mindset and to clarify your goals so you advance your career. You can find this episode wherever you listen to podcasts. If this episode helped you today, please share and leave a quick review so that others may find the podcast. Until next time, you can check out more resources at finance leaderacademycom and sign up for my weekly updates so you don't miss an episode of the podcast. And now go lead your team and I'll see you next time. Thank you.