Daily Wisdom 03-05-2002 Accountability

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Accountability

As I have reflected on the issue of accountability over the years, both during my active business life and after my retirement, three principles stand out in my mind. First, the more you have, the greater your accountability. Second, there is no accountability without freedom. Third, there is no accountability without assessment.First: The more you have, the greater your accountability. This is illustrated by theBiblical parable of the talents, which has become such a part of our cultural language that we've forgotten its original, literal meaning. To us a "talent" is any special ability that an individual has, but in Jesus' day the word "talent" referred to a unit of money (Matthew, chapter 25: verses 14-30). This becomes particularly relevant when we read Jesus' admonition in another parable from the Bible: "From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded" (Luke 12:48). These words we must take seriously. Make no mistake: Whatever our assets might be - financial, personal, position, opportunity, or ability - we are called to be good stewards of those assets.

Second: There is no accountability without freedom. Accountability and freedom are two sides of the same coin; you cannot have one without the other. When I was president of Amway, I quickly learned that it was useless to hold a manager responsible for a certain level of production if I didn't give him the authority to get the job done. If he weren't free to make decisions, then I could not blame him for the results. If we are going to hold people accountable, then we have to create an environment, a society, in which they have the freedom to take risks and make mistakes. We need the freedom to fail and the freedom to advance as far as we can.

Third: There is no accountability without assessment. It's hard to be accountable without some kind of objective evaluation. We all need help in assessing our personal performance. A fair system of evaluation nurtures the incentive to work hard and reap the reward. Without regular assessment, anyone in any occupation could not rise above those who don't want to work and are just along for the ride.

Everyone is accountable to someone. Use that accountability to propel you to where you want to go. Only when we take full responsibility for our actions can we shed the burdens of our mistakes and go forward.

Rich DeVos is vice-chairman of Gospel Communications. He is also the author of "Hope From My Heart: Ten Lessons for Life," co-founder of Amway Corp., and owner and chairman of the NBA's Orlando Magic.