“You must take personal responsibility. You cannot change the circumstances, the seasons, or the wind, but you can change yourself. That is something you have charge of.” – Jim Rohn

Responsibility is a choice that a leaders as in how to respond to life’s situations and circumstances. As leaders have two choices regarding our respons-ability in life…

1. We can respond as a victim. We respond as victims when circumstances are the driving force in our life and in the choices we make. As victim you’re taking action based on the circumstances in which you find yourself. The circumstances are the cause of your actions.
2. We can respond as an owner. When we respond as owner, we make a choice to respond with our ability to create a new future. Responsibility stems from a belief and a decision, that we can respond and be the cause and to never be a victim of a circumstance, and that one can act to create a new future without requiring the permission to act from any external sources. Response-ability is the recognition that as a leader you are able to author new and better circumstances, it’s a choice we make.

Respons-ability is a choice, not something that happens to you. You have the choice to be the victim or owner and author of the situation. An owner will look for solutions, whilst a victim will search for a persecutor or a rescuer. Peter Senge in the Introduction to the book “Synchronicity: The Inner Path of Leadership” makes the following observation:   

"In the West we tend to think of leadership as a quality that exists in certain people. This usual way of thinking has many traps. We search for special individuals with leadership potential, rather than developing the leadership potential in everyone. We are easily distracted by what this or that leader is doing, by the melodrama of people in power trying to maintain their power and others trying to wrest it from them. When things are going poorly, we blame the situation on incompetent leaders, thereby avoiding any personal responsibility. When things become desperate, we can easily find ourselves waiting for a great leader to rescue us. Through all of this, we totally miss the bigger question: ‘What are  we, collectively, able to create?’…… we forget that in its essence, leadership is about learning how to shape the future. Leadership exists when people are no longer victims of circumstances but participate in creating new circumstances" – Peter Senge

As a leader are you taking respons-ability to own and shape the circumstances in which you find yourself?

Are you helping other to become respons-able?

Technorati Tags: Responsible, Leadership, Management, Business

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Dr. Jay Conger Professor of Leadership Studies, Claremont McKenna College, discusses the following three aspects of great leadership, authenticity, branding and followership.

“We’re swimming in advice about how to be good leaders. Bookstores hold remarkable portraits of Donald Trump, Martha Stewart, Jack Welsh and others. They all have advice for us. But how many people can “play” Donald Trump? It’s hard to imitate these characters. And if you try, it is usually a disaster. The last person who tried to imitate Jack Welsh was Jacques Nasser at Ford, which is one reason why Ford ended up on the brink of disaster. It’s better to be yourself; beware of who you wish to become.”

Authenticity

“Why is authenticity important? We live in a world of political and business cynicism and we’ve lost trust with our establishments and leaders. Authenticity is crucial to gaining the mantle of leadership because it is used to retain talent. Authenticity requires:

• Maintaining consistency between words and deeds
• Communicating a consistent underlying theme
• Being comfortable with yourself
• Revealing an allowable weakness

“… It takes a long time to develop your own authenticity. The challenge is to develop your own sense of conviction, and life experiences can either reinforce or demolish those convictions. ”

“There has to be consistency between words and deeds. A leader’s actions must move the organization toward a consistent underlying theme. You have to know who you are and what the organization stands for.”

Being authentic is central to trust, and without trust you cannot lead. How effectively and consciously have you focused on developing your authenticity?

Branding

“Who you are as a leader is your brand. Because you can’t be everywhere, the brand will carry your message. Branding requires:

• Having identity differences that are meaningful for your followers
• Projecting these differences
• Highlighting your differences in stories, decisions, dress and actions

What is Bill Gates’ brand? He is totally aligned with his business model, which means that if you’re a geek, you want to work for him. Richard Branson’s brand is risk taking, outrageous ideas and adventure. Your brand has to personify your business so followers can easily identify it.”

Although I don’t quite think that branding is the right word, the idea Jay talks about is important. Are you clear about why you make a difference?

Followership

“Why should anyone be led by you? As president and CEO, what are the one or two qualities that make people want to follow you? What your followers want:

• Significance
• Community
• Excitement
• Authenticity

“Do your actions mirror authenticity, a clear brand and build followership? “

Are you doing what matters? This is an important question. With so many causes for people to join and give of their time and energy, why does you cause matter?

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@N00/2844178768/" target="_blank">Photo by joshuahoffmanphoto

An organisation’s culture can be a source of competitive advantage or a huge obstacle to achieving its goals. The importance of culture really struck me after reading “Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance?“, in the book Lou Gersner, the former CEO and Chairman of IBM, reflects on the turnaround he orchestrated during his tenure….

“I came to see, in my time at IBM, that culture isn’t just one aspect of the game – it is the game. In the end, an organization is nothing more than the collective capacity of its people to create value. Vision, strategy, marketing, financial management – any management system, in fact – can set you on the right path and can carry you for a while. But no enterprise – whether in business, government, education, health care, or any area of human endeavor – will succeed over the long haul if those elements aren’t part of its DNA.”

As Gerstner proved, in the turnaround of IBM, that leaders can shape and indeed change an organisation’s culture. The fact that Lou Gerstner could change the culture, of one of the world’s largest organisations should give hope and inspiration to all leaders. Leaders are instrumental in shaping an organisations culture a post from Anecdote describes the leaders role….

“…Edgar Schein noted a decade ago: cultures are largely created and modified by the actions of the organisation’s leaders. And here we view leadership in its broadest sense as someone who people take notice of and follow their lead. There are a relatively small set of things leaders do that affect culture:

• What leaders pay attention to, measure, and control on a regular basis
• How leaders react to critical incidents and organisational crises
• How leaders allocate resources
• Deliberate role modelling, teaching, and coaching
• How leaders allocate rewards and status
• How leaders recruit, select, promote, and excommunicate

The short-hand for this list is, ‘How do you get ahead around here?’”

Leaders cannot afford to let an organisation’s culture just evolve. Just as Lou Gerstner shaped IBM’s culture based upon an end goal and leaders who intend on shaping their organisation’s culture need an end goal. What should your organisation’s couture look like to be effective? The key to effectively shaping your team’s or your organisation’s culture begins with purpose. Wikipedia defines purpose as “Purpose in its most general sense is the anticipated aim which guides action.” Leaders wanting to shape an organisations culture need purposefully act, aligning all the above six leadership practices towards the organisation’s end goal and purpose.

• Are you purposely acting to shape your organisation’s culture?
• What are you paying attention to?
• How do you react to critical moments?
• What are you teaching?
• What do yo allocating resources to?
• What do you reward?
• Who are you recruiting and promoting?

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