We all should strive to be responsible in our conduct, behavior, and work. It’s not about taking blame for something gone awry, it’s about functioning in a way that tells others we’re professional adults. The sort of person that can be relied on to get the job done and done right. Setting this example for others to follow is doing the responsible thing.
Being responsible (i.e. acting in a responsible way), having responsibilities, and taking responsibility are all part of living responsibly. The burden of responsibility, and it’s potential stress, can cause some to avoid it. They may enjoy the idea of power, prestige, or even parenthood but don’t relish the thought of absorbing any of the responsibilities associated with it. I prefer to look at responsibility as a mindset not a burden. If your mindset is simply to be and to act responsibly, it provides you with a fairly clear guide book for any endeavor. If your “position of power” is thought of in terms of responsibility, you can avoid many of the narcissistic pitfalls of so many leaders of today.
Mission orientation.
You begin this work life journey at ground zero, at the bottom rung of any organization. You start by owning, or internalizing, the mission of your group. You see the successful completion of the unit’s work as your responsibility. You pitch in to ensure that all work gets done as it’s suppose to and when it’s suppose to even if you’ve already done your assigned piece. You become mission oriented. You set an example for your peers and in many cases will see your peers follow your example. Not everybody will follow suit and most who do won’t give it as much effort but that’s their character flaw to worry about not yours (unless you’re their supervisor, of course). This mindset disallows the cry “that ain’t my job!”
When you first begin your climb up the ladder you rely on others higher up the chain to establish the “mission” sorta speak. You concentrate more on the day-to-day operations and work with your team to complete the tasks given. As I expressed in the post Are You A Leader? you need to see a bigger picture and with that view you need to see the mission. Set your sights on that mission, orient to it, and take responsibility for successfully attaining it. Remember, this is about leading by example and not about rallying the troops to take the hill. That’s a subject for another time.
Taking Initiative.
I’m speaking about: jumping in to help out when the need arises, jumping in to get something moving forward again, or identifying an issue holding back progress and fixing it. I’m not talking about always volunteering you or your team for every special project that comes your way. If you’re a mission oriented, responsible, hardworking team player, you’ll have plenty of work to keep you busy without volunteering for anything. Besides, if you’re that person (the mission oriented, responsible, hardworking team player), your boss will look you up if there’s a special project or assignment needing your attention.
One thing I made a practice of not doing was volunteering for extra work in the Air Force. I did on occasion but it was rare. Typically, I was handed assignments to areas of extreme neglect. Once they were brought up to snuff, they were handed off and I was given another area or two (or three, or four…) that sorely needed attention. The cycle never ended. My volunteering for more work would have meant the earth would need to slow in its spin so there would be more hours in the day.
Taking the initiative to get things done and done right is the example you want to set because that’s what you’ll need from your team. You don’t need volunteers for splashy, glamorous projects because you’ll assign those to the team member you think is best suited for it.
Taking the responsibility.
If you buy into my creed that mission failure is not an option and you “own” the process, then own up to the problems you encounter as well. I can practically feel my molars cracking as my jaw tightens when someone starts throwing excuses at me for why an assignment isn’t completed or why they can’t show me adequate progress on a project. Reasons exist for delays, I get that, but take responsibility for working through it. Excuses tell me the person doesn’t really own it because they’ve let someone or something interfere. Pointing fingers or throwing someone under the bus is never constructive and tells me you’re more interested in saving face than accomplishing the mission.
Running into roadblocks is normal, smooth sailing always stresses me because I figure a sand bar’s going to pop up any minute. The best you can do is to document, document, document. I don’t mean an elaborate system of note taking and bureaucratic sign off sheets. I’m talking about brief entries, on your medium of choice, that allow you to summarize an issue for your boss quickly so he can step in and help keep the process moving. You own it. It’s yours. Treat it as such.
Taking the easy road, DON’T.
Expediency is what I call “taking the easy road.” It’s rarely, if ever, the right way, or responsible way, to do anything. You do not want your team practicing expediency, you want them following policy, procedure, and protocol. You generally have at least two other choices before you get to expediency.
Let me demonstrate with a thing called field expedient coffee. Coffee can be brewed which is the best and right way to make coffee (Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks are popular enough to prove my point). If you’re in the field and only have MREs you have to go with instant coffee. It was doable. I put two MRE heaters (still in their plastic bags) into a canteen cup of water. Once the water warmed, I dumped in the packet (or two, or three…) of coffee, creamer, and sugar. Stirred it a little with a multitool and presto, a cup of joe (see example picture below). OR you could drink a field expedient coffee. Open the packets of coffee, creamer, and sugar, dump them in your mouth, and wash it down with water from your canteen. I think my mouth appreciated my tendencies away from expediency. Of course, I was Air Force so we had a coffee pot in our air conditioned tent. Ours was kept next to the full sized refrigerator and opposite the side with the microwave oven.
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| Hot Coffee Tactical Style |
There are other ways to be expedient in your work, especially when relying on others to do their piece. This is where “trust but verify” comes into play. It is easy to take someone’s word that their piece of the project/assignment/task is complete or at least on track to meet the deadline. You ask, they confirm, that’s that, enough said, moving right along. Not good enough. You can have all the trust in the world because this individual has the character and integrity of a saint. The problem is it may not sync with your piece, trust but verify. It takes more work but you’re going to have your name on it and you need to ensure it works.
This example may not fit exactly but I’ll use it none-the-less. While stationed at Ft Drum, NY, we experienced an equipment failure on our temperature/dewpoint readout in the weather station. We knew this because the LED display of the readings was flashing. The weather observer logged it as inoperable and maintenance was dispatched to fix it. Soon it stopped flashing and it was logged in. A short time later it began flashing again. The outage procedure was followed again with similar results. After a few of these incidents in short succession the maintenance crew informed us that the reading were good and not to bother logging it out. I could’ve avoided any further hassle and accepted their call and pressed ahead with business as usual. This is what my predecessor had done so why not. It took weeks and a lot of kicking and screaming from a lot of people before I prevailed. I even had to use a couple of rungs on the chain of command. Fact was the readings weren’t accurate and there was a serious problem with the equipment that needed attention. It would have been easy to just live with the flashing display and pretend the readings were accurate...who would have known, or cared for that matter? It would’ve been the expedient thing to do.
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| Temperature/Dewpoint Digital Readout (FMQ-8) |
Another source of expediency is “that’s the way we’ve always done it.” Peer pressure to not rock the boat is typically at play. I have found written procedures dating back years and yet this is the reason I’m given. My first thought is usually, “so, you’re admitting to wrongdoing all this time?” I don’t normally say that but instead I’ll say “that may be true but from here on out you’ll follow the proper procedure.” Many times, I admit, I’ll work with them to update and possibly alter a procedure to be better aligned with reality but not because “that’s just the way it’s always been done.”
One personal recommendation for situations where you can’t enforce doing it right rather than expediently. Don’t just go ahead and do it for them because you want it done right. You probably have enough of your own work to do. Set the example by doing your tasks the right way, the responsible way, and press on. If you’re the team lead, that’s a different story.
Follow up on everything.
One of my most frustrating traits is my incessant follow up. It’s not a control thing and it’s not a micromanage thing. I allow others to do their job, I just want to be in the loop. I’m responsible for it and I “own” it so I want to keep track of it. I don’t believe in making others fill out forms, update tracking spreadsheets, or give me a list of what they did all day. Those are micromanager or lazy manager devices meant to burden the workers with the manager’s job. I want to know first hand that the work’s been done. I covered this ad nauseum in the Pay Attention! series.
Being responsible and doing your due diligence with follow up can be annoying to both the responsible party and those involved in the process. As the responsible party, I find it annoying because every time I don’t double check something falls straight through the cracks. It’s annoying to those involved in the process because they’re constantly having to be checked. It’s annoying to the irresponsible ones the most because it makes them accountable. If they don’t do it, they get caught.
This is not to say you have to be the strings on Uncle Billy’s fingers. You’re not the Outlook reminder function incarnate. It’s their job to make the deadline and complete the task properly. There should be pride on their faces when you show up to look things over. If you’re shocked (naturally you’d be feigning shock because you followed my advice and have been Paying Attention all along) by the lack of progress there needs to be consequences as well.
If you accept the mindset that your job and those under you are your responsibility, you are less likely to wield your power and authority irresponsibly. The example you set will earn you respect. You may even recognize that it’s not threatening to share with your team because all you’re essentially sharing is responsibility.
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