IX. We Take Personal Accountability For Our Actions And The Actions Of Our Teammates

A few years back, I read QBQ: The Question Behind The Question by John Miller after hearing it was mandatory reading for employees working at Dave Ramsey's company. The book is about personal accountability. It's about asking what you can do to improve the situation rather than assigning blame. The opposite of taking personal accountability is playing the victim. A good line from the book:

We always have a choice. Always. Realizing this and taking responsibility for our choices is a big step toward making great things happen in our lives.

On high performance teams, it's not enough to take accountability for your actions alone. You must also take accountability for the actions of your teammates. If your teammate fails, the team fails. You fail. The verse on our crest at Messiah was Proverbs 27:17:

As iron sharpens iron so one man sharpens another.

It's interesting: after including 'we take personal accountability for our actions and the actions of our teammates' in the Starting XI, I came across the Navy SEAL's SEAL Code. One of their values is very similar (almost identical):

Take personal responsibility for your actions and the actions of your teammates.

Here's more on the SEAL Code.