I was in Hong Kong recently and had to take a bus from the airport to Discovery Bay. Having just arrived in Hong Kong, I converted some US Dollars to Hong Kong Dollars. The smallest denomination I received was 50 Hong Kong Dollars. The bus ride was 32 Hong Kong Dollars. The bus to Discovery Bay arrived every half hour. Spot on schedule, the bus arrived. As I alighted the bus, with my luggage in toe, I was required to deposit the 50 HK Dollars into a Perspex container next to the driver which said “Deposit your Fee here”. I handed the driver the 50 HK Dollars and asked him for change. “No change on this bus,” he responded and pointed to the Perspex box. I dropped my money in the box and went to find a seat.

A few stops later, a man came to sit next to me. He had deposited exactly 32 HK Dollars as required. I turned to him and asked innocently, “Why do the bus drivers not give change in Honk Kong?” “Simple,” he responded, “it’s a case of personal accountability and responsibility.”

He went on to explain that the public transport runs efficiently and timeously in Hong Kong and that, in order for this to happen, people had to get on and in the bus as quickly as possible. If the bus driver was expected to give change, then the system would slow down. The City had decided to make it the responsibility of the commuters to worry about change and not the drivers. It works.

It got me thinking about being an entrepreneur and the concept of personal accountability and responsibility. When you read about great leaders, in all types of organisations, they seem to have a few character traits in common. Two of these is that they are people who have a high degree of responsibility and that they are people who have high degrees of personal accountability. In other words, they are people with a high internal locus of control. They do not blame; they do not give many excuses.

When you listen to your friends and colleagues (and yourself for that matter) try to listen for how many times the words “it’s because…” come out of their mouths. I bet that there is an inverse correlation between those that are in leadership roles and the amount of times excuse-type language is used. Blaming and making excuses, when you think about it, does nothing to progress you. Being accountable, and doing something about it, is the only way things are going to change for the better.