ac·count·abil·i·ty : the quality or state of being accountable; especially : an obligation or willingness to accept responsibility or to account for one's actions.

I recently had to confront someone about some actions that they had taken.  And I was in complete awe to the point that I had to shake my head of their inability to see how their actions had resulted in additional costs to the company and additional work hours to other staff.  I was dumbfounded.

The trouble that I was having that this person was of an equal age.  Had this person been younger, then the fatherly mentor part of myself could have stepped forward and tended to the task at hand.  But that was not the situation.  So the mistake on my part was to come at the situation that this person had the same life's knowledge that I had.

I had learned long ago that you "Man Up", take responsibility for the decisions that you make and learn from the right or wrong of those decisions.  That the fault is not in making the wrong decision but in not taking ownership of it.

If you own up to the decisions that you make i.e. Be Accountable, then you are taking steps to learning from the process.