accept responsibility

Meaning

To take ownership of a mistake, problem, or duty, and agree to deal with the consequences. In business, it shows professionalism, maturity, and leadership when things go wrong.

Examples

• The CEO was quick to accept responsibility for the product recall.

  The CEO was quick to accept responsibility for the product recall.

• As the project manager, I accept responsibility for the delay in delivery.

  As the project manager, I accept responsibility for the delay in delivery.

• Instead of blaming his team, he chose to accept responsibility for the error.

  Instead of blaming his team, he chose to accept responsibility for the error.

• The company issued a public statement to accept responsibility for the data breach.

  The company issued a public statement to accept responsibility for the data breach.

• It is important for leaders to accept responsibility when goals are not met.

  It is important for leaders to accept responsibility when goals are not met.

Common Mistakes

• ✗ He took the responsibility of the mistake.

  ✓ He accepted responsibility for the mistake.

  While 'take responsibility' is acceptable, 'accept responsibility for' is the standard professional collocation for acknowledging fault.

• ✗ She accepted responsibility about the project failure.

  ✓ She accepted responsibility for the project failure.

  Always use the preposition 'for' after 'accept responsibility' when specifying the cause.

Related Expressions

Practice

• A good manager should always ___ for their team's mistakes.

  💡 take ownership of errors

  Show answer

  accept responsibility

• The airline refused to ___ and blamed the system outage instead.

  💡 take the blame/ownership

  Show answer

  accept responsibility