Taking Responsibility For Success
It sounds a bit weird when you hear, “taking responsibility for success”. It’s probably because we naturally associate responsibility with things that are stressful, thankless and generally not fun. Think back through your life and remember how it felt every time you were told to “be more responsible” and “it’s time for you to take on more responsibility”, or the dreaded, “you’re responsible for this”! Not good. Although you might have learned important lessons, I guarantee you that none of those moments made you feel very enlightened.
Now channel the feeling you had when you were told, “great job” and “we couldn’t have done it without you”, or the ever exhilarating, “you rock”! Oh yeah; much, much better. Unfortunately, we don’t connect these successful moments with responsibility, but that’s exactly what they are…examples of how we’ve taken responsibility for success.
What is responsibility anyway? Forget the dictionary version. They refer to it as a “burden of obligation”. No wonder we associate responsibility with negative feelings. It’s the wrong message. Responsibility is a cycle of improvement:
- Making decisions;
- Taking action;
- Learning something; then going back to #1.
It doesn’t mean you start making only right decisions, but you do become more decisive, more willing to take action and more receptive to the lessons that only come with experience.
Making Decisions For Success
You’re always making decisions, even when your decision is to wait and do nothing. Of course, from a business perspective, doing nothing is often the worst decision to make. It says to your colleagues, your employees, your shareholders, your bankers, your customers and your competitors that you are not taking responsibility for success. Instead, you’re leaving it up to every other element, controllable or not, to determine whether your company survives, thrives or dies.
Back in the 70’s, everyone either owned or craved the absolute coolest technology in photography - the SX-70 Polaroid Instant Camera. Point, shoot, and out spits a square, blank, slightly gooey piece of stiff paper. Then you, “shake it like a Polaroid picture”, for a minute as the image magically appears before your eyes. For over a decade the product was on fire, although the company was poorly managed. When digital photography was introduced, Polaroid had a big decision to make. Polaroid’s decision was, let’s keep doing what we’re doing, only let’s invest more to innovate film. They didn’t listen to the market or to their customers. So much for Polaroid. Of course, Ken Olson didn’t do much better in 1977. As the President, Chairman and Founder of Digital Equipment Corp. he made a big decision immortalized in the statement, “There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.” Oops.
Making decisions is not just about deciding yes, no; go, no go. Decisions require the best thinking you can muster in the time you’re given. You need inputs. Data and facts balanced with perspectives and insights. Rarely are things so black and white that decisions are easy, at least not when it comes to the big stuff.
Taking Action For Success
When you make decisions, things change. Either you’re instigating the change or you’re waiting for things around you to change. Don’t wait. It’s much better to be in the driver’s seat, as long as you trust your abilities.
I came across an interesting case study during a consulting gig for Hay Group, a worldwide HR consulting company. I was helping them build a business case for a new product they licensed called Resilience FactorTM - Achieving Success By Overcoming Adversity. The study examined how two groups of sales people at Edward Jones responded to a disturbing decline in sales activity. The Control Group dealt with the problem by abdicating responsibility to everything else around them - the economy, the marketing, corporate leadership. The Resilience Group, using the training program, identified factors that were controllable and formed strategies to help them overcome the hurdles. In other words, this group accepted responsibility for their success by dealing directly with the factors that they could affect - customer education, communications, leveraging each other’s talents and skill sets. The Reliance Group produced over 101% higher Assets Under Management than the Control Group and enjoyed over 85% higher gross commissions.
Making a decision can feel like standing at the edge of a tall cliff overlooking the water. You can decide to jump, but still find yourself standing there hours later. Taking action is obviously making the leap. The fear is that if you jump you might belly flop and break your neck. Or, if you’re thoughtful and controlled, you’ll probably live and might even have the rush of your life. In business, you can’t stand there forever noodling your decision. Think through the implications, mitigate the downsides and focus on the factors you can influence to deliver the best results.
Learning What It Takes To Be Successful
Sometimes the decision was wrong. Other times it was the action. One thing is for sure, if you stay focused, and calm, you’ll learn something that allows you to change course before disaster strikes.
When you’re acting on decisions, you have to pay attention to what is going on along the way. It’s okay to make a mistake, but if you only discover that you’ve made a mistake at the very end, you haven’t taken responsibility for success. You must stay plugged in and be prepared to navigate, retreat, redirect and yes, make new decisions and take new action. It takes guts. As Sir Winston Churchill said, “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”
Leadership Means Taking Responsibility For Success
As individuals we have a responsibility for our own success. Throughout our lives we make decisions, take action and learn lessons that we hope will get us to a better place. When you’re running a company, you have a responsibility to make decisions and take action that will lead the organization and everyone involved to a better place. That’s not a “burden”, but it is an “obligation”. It’s one you’re fortunate to have. Most people aren’t built to take the lead. You have it. You have the opportunity to create the conditions for success for your employees, suppliers, customers and of course, yourself. You. Because, you rock!
Creating The Conditions For You To Take Responsibility For Success
- Make it a priority to understand the problems and opportunities of your company, market, competitors and customers.
- Build your input sources - people, research, data, articles, books.
- Don’t be idle with your decisions. When it’s time to make a decision, make it!
- Plan the appropriate action with timely measurement and focused oversight.
- Stay plugged in so you can learn from what is happening.
- Have the courage to make adjustments, revisit your action plan and even your decision if necessary.
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Yeah which is why I talk about
Taking Consistent Action To Achieve Success in my blog. There are 6 points I illustrated. Just want to share it with you and your readers.