» People Have As Much Responsibility As They Have Been Prepared To Take

This statement informs much of our thinking around leadership. Why? Because in our work we see people, regardless of age, job title or formal position working with very different amounts of responsibility. 

Managing Directors of major international divisions in their early-mid thirties are not just there because they have the brain the size of a planet or because they have been in the right place/right time (although they can help!).  They are in those positions because they have made themselves available to be responsible, they have volunteered, they have been prepared to be accountable, and they have taken a risk. 

It’s not just about seniority either.  We recently met a call centre team leader in her early twenties who was frustrated with the lack of progress around a project she had been co-opted onto.  For the next meeting (usually badly set up for, and chaotic in format) she took things into her own hands by preparing the agenda, sending reminders, printing out the latest project path, and generally pulled things together.  The really clever part was she had volunteered to take the minutes of the previous meeting, which she had written up with action points included so the next meeting had a sharpness previously missing.  She also had the political acuity to ‘hand over’ her work to the project manager before the meeting, so she didn’t appear ‘pushy’.

After the second meeting organised like this the team saw what going on, a ‘coup’ happened with her being given the project manager’s role.  The incumbent project manager is now part of the team.

If all this seems like hard work, or you’re worried about rocking the boat, or you think you’ll look like a creep, or you want to know first what’s in it for you? Then you miss the point.  Responsibility gives you control, control gives you the power to change and affect things, and that places you in the most exciting place in your organisation, at its decision making heart.

To learn more about how becoming suggestible to responsibility is part of effective leadership contact one of our Customer Business Managers on 01789 734300, or by email: info@structuredtraining.com

Or take a look at our leadership courses, From Management To Leadership and Leadership And Motivation.