The Misunderstood Truth About Accountability
The goal of accountability is to help you maintain positive behaviors as they develop into positive habits. Being critical of someone does not help achieve this goal in the long-term. While people do change short-term behavior to avoid criticism, the long-term behavior change that criticism causes is avoidance.
Therefore, as sports psychologist Johana Oliver states “accountability is celebration more than criticism.” This misunderstood truth about accountability is a game changer for coaches and parents with high expectations.
Unquestionably, accountability is a product of expectations. Moreover, expectations do more harm than good when the expectations are a burden instead of a blessing. Indeed, expectations are a burden when you are constantly criticized for not meeting them and they are a blessing when you are celebrated for meeting or exceeding them.
So, as a rule of thumb for those coaches and parents who are the bearers of accountability, expectations that only facilitate negative feedback are too high. While it’s true that low expectations are detrimental, so are exceptionally high expectations. Correspondingly, when long-term behavior change is the goal, you must build the foundation of accountability with positive feedback.