Leadership Skills: The Importance of Taking Responsibility
Do you want to take ownership of your life, your work, and your relationships? Do you want a better life experience? Do you want to be happier or have the power to make changes?
Then I welcome you to check out everything The Leadership Gift™ Program has to offer for your personal growth.
As you increase your studies of The Leadership Gift, you learn how to deal effectively with everyday challenges that stop others or cause a lot of drama, stress and anxiety; hence, you increase your ability to respond. Responsibility is simply the ability to respond — to effectively respond to what you don’t like.
The Leadership Gift works so well because you were born with it (i.e. The Responsibility Process™ that’s in you and everybody you know).
It also works because every act of true leadership taps into it. Why? Because every act of true leadership starts with authentic self-leadership and deals with the anxiety of the group, with cause and effect, and with challenges, problems and conflicts.
Yet most people never knew they have this in them. But with our research over the last 25 years, we now know precisely how to learn it, practice it, and even master it — for those who want it. That makes it an amazing gift.
Responsibility is far more than a moral or ethical imperative.
It is a potent framework for learning that is already integrated into your mind, your emotions and cognitive abilities. Therefore, understanding it, tapping into it, and mastering it will give you amazing results.
Think about this cause-and-effect assumption that most of us don’t even question:
For my life (work, career, relationships) to get better, something out there — outside of me — has to change.
This un-checked assumption is an unfortunate personal position of no power, no learning, and no growth in one’s ability to respond. Why? Because the assumption is that all the causal force in one’s life is “out there.”
However, I know from The Responsibility Process that it is “in here” in every one of us.
I know what I’m doing with The Leadership Gift in me. What will you do with The Leadership Gift in you?
Practicing The Leadership Gift increases our ability to function as a human being, which means a greater ability to produce the results we want, and the ability to grow far more rapidly than those around us. It helps you to have what you want and to want what you have, which is a basic definition of responsibility.
What does it mean to exercise The Leadership Gift in you? It means developing or accessing greater ability to function. I mean functioning across a range of abilities and sensibilities, some of which you’re aware of and some of which you aren’t, so that you may have ever more with less effort.
The Leadership Gift Program teaches you that you can handle upsets and problems with ease, and face any challenge that comes your way.
People ask me all the time how I know responsibility when I see it. Easy: when you have what you want and want what you have, then you’re probably practicing responsibility at a high level.
“Take 100 percent responsibility” is the first principle of success.
My friend Miguel Puerta, an excellent organization change and leadership consultant from Saltillo, Mexico, said years ago, “Christopher, every success guru says you must first take 100 percent responsibility — but they never tell how. I see The Responsibility Process is the first how-to approach for taking, teaching, learning, practicing, and mastering responsibility.”
We all seek certain experiences, connection, purpose, and fulfillment. The ultimate benefits of The Leadership Gift is ever-increasing degrees of freedom in your life. You’ll experience much greater, real choice and ultimately the true personal power that comes from that kind of authenticity and freedom.
Get Started With This 5-Minute Practice Tip
Which part of your personal or professional life could benefit from learning more about taking 100% personal responsibility? After all, you can’t change other people’s behavior — you can only change your own.
Take 5 minutes this week to read one of my other blog posts that appeals to you and apply just one new idea I’ve offered.
Leaders and coaches: Get Christopher’s best team building and leadership strategies collected over two-plus decades of solving teamwork problems for smart people. Attend the acclaimed Creating Results-Based Teams workshop, or get this FREE Special Report while it lasts: The Five Flawless Steps to Building a Strong Executive Leadership Team.
Christopher Avery, PhD, is a recognized authority on how individual and shared responsibility works in the mind and an advisor to leaders worldwide.