Positive Principles Newsletter
December 2005
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“Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody else expects
of you.”
- Henry Ward Beecher
“Action springs not from thought, but from a readiness for
responsibility.”
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer
“Much is required from those to whom much is given, and much more is
required from those to whom much more is given.”
- The Holy Bible, Luke 12:48, New Living Translation
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This month's tip – Learn to
think “I’m responsible.”
I am a firm believer in accepting responsibility. Responsibility for my
thoughts, words, actions, and inactions. Personal responsibility has been
important to me for as long as I can remember. I don’t know if it is a big
issue to me because of the influence of my parents and grandparents or
because of my personality style. It’s probably a combination of the two.
In August, I began working with Dr. Robert Rohm and his staff at
Personality Insights in Atlanta, Georgia. Dr. Rohm is also a believer
in personal responsibility. In fact, he has given everyone on his staff a
desk plaque that reads “I’m responsible”. My plaque sits on a small shelf
above my computer monitor.
Until recently, though, I never really thought about the impact accepting
responsibility has on personal and business relationships. One day about
six weeks ago I had an experience that caused me to reflect on this point.
I was scheduled to meet Dr. Rohm and his
right-hand man, Carl, at a conference in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I was
driving to Grand Rapids, so Carl left a message at my home for me to get
paper on my way to the conference. I interpreted his message to mean
that we needed a minimum of nine reams of paper and that they expected me to
bring three boxes with three reams in each box. I stopped at an office
supply store and found a large box with ten reams of paper – success.
When I arrived at the conference with my single box of paper, Dr. Rohm’s
first words were, “Where are the other two boxes?” I explained my
understanding of the message and immediately realized by the look on Dr.
Rohm’s face that I had not understood as clearly as I thought.
As Dr. Rohm and I worked to understand each other, Carl jumped into the
conversation. He said, “Dr. Rohm, it’s my fault. I didn’t make the message
clear enough.”
I didn’t want Carl to accept responsibility for my mistake. So I said,
“No. Dr. Rohm, it’s my fault. I should have called to clarify what you
wanted.”
Then Dr. Rohm said, “No. It’s my fault. I didn’t make it clear enough to
Carl so that he could make it clear to you.”
From that simple interchange, we immediately jumped over blame and
recrimination and landed directly in problem solving. Since we had all taken
ownership for our piece of the miscommunication, there was no need to
discuss it further. We moved to action without wasting time on hurt
feelings and apologies. Everyone was happy. The problem was solved.
That exchange made a big impact on me. It clarified the significance that
accepting responsibility has on leadership and team dynamics. If we are all
willing to accept responsibility, no one has to get the blame. If no one
gets the blame, we can quickly move to problem solving and results without
stopping to “lick our wounds”.
So for now, I encourage you to remember this month's tip . . .
Learn to think “I’m responsible.”
Have a great day,
Guy Harris
The Recovering Engineer
