Climate Of Accountability Essay

In Module 7, I think the most important concept is creating a climate of accountability, which is a tenet of the Prevention part of the Discipline Model. Creating a climate of accountability is so important because keeping people accountable is the follow-up; it’s the feedback. Some might argue that setting standards is the most important part, but what good is setting a standard if you’re unwilling to enforce it. Keeping people accountable is that enforcement of the standard. It’s more than just the enforcement of those frontline standards, though, that we give new Airmen that typically are the ones doing “heavy lifting”, so to speak. As we gain rank and come into positions where we have subordinates that have subordinates, we have to set a standard for our subordinate leaders of Airmen to hold those Airmen accountable to the standards that get set for them. That gets a little complicated, so let’s simplify it. Let’s say that you supervise a Staff Sergeant who supervises two Senior Airmen. One day, one of those Senior Airmen comes in clearly having not shaved. You know that Senior Airman should know the standard because dress and appearance standards are gone over pretty thoroughly during basic training. You have to hold two people

People want to take the easy way out. That’s just human nature. Not everyone has a strong desire to do everything the right way all the time. Sometimes, I even get tired or overwhelmed and want to start to cut corners or skip steps in a process in order to get something done faster, and that’s when I need someone to hold me accountable to the standards. However, if there’s no accountability, then that one-time easy way becomes more and more normal. Others see that this one person can get away with those shortcuts. That bad habit spreads and then becomes the new standard, and what was once only an individual problem is now a culture