Responsibility

Responsibility - A very commonly used word in the corporate brochures. A very commonly used term for teams across the world. I have rarely seen teams / individuals / corporations stand-up and set up responsibility standards higher than others. How do you go about inculcating a "sense of responsibility" such that it is not dictated by others rather is a fire-from-within?

When the teams are carved out for a new project - there are roles and responsibilities mentioned for each individual. I have seen this happen across the world - there are always a few set of folks who just meet their responsibility and then there is the other set of folks who work late-nights and crazy hours to exceed their existing responsibility and take on much more.

In an ideal world, these would be our role models, our heroes who we would celebrate for the life of the project. In reality, we send out a thank you note sometimes to these individuals and put out the fire that had made them go the extra mile. I feel that as executives, we need to encourage such behavior of taking more and more responsibility and need to encourage the thought delivering more creatively.

How do you enable individuals to have the courage to take more responsibility? You can either offer that to them which in my opinion is the simplest way however is not the best way. The best way is to pose the challenge to the individual, stand back and see how he / she performs and raises to the challenge. 9 times out of 10, all individuals will perform. The human mind is capable of much more than you can imagine. As the individual starts raising up and performing in the elevated levels of responsibility and gets comfortable, raise the bar once again and so on.

So, the next time around, you are responsible for one more deliverable for your team / department / corporation, will you take this as just another thing or a challenge for you to excel - think about it.