Are you responsible?

Chris Avery, a leadership consultant, teaches how one can be responsible.

According to Avery, responsibility isn’t a character trait. It is a learned mental process operating identically in everyone. You know responsibility when you see it. You can teach it, study it and practice it.

If you are willing, you can choose to become more responsible. Avery says that responsibility is best achieved when individuals choose to pursue it as compared to others attempting to force you into responsibility. In other words, responsibility is best learned as it is modeled by others and taught as a virtue worthy to pursue.

Avery says there are three keys to unlocking and mastering responsibility. They are:

• INTENTION – Intending to respond responsibly when things go wrong. Responsible people see problems as opportunities to improve things and take steps to address them.
• AWARENESS – Catching yourself in the mental states Avery identifies as Denial, Lay Blame, Justify, Shame, Obligation, and Quit. Irresponsible people point fingers, voice regret, justify inaction and quit too easy and too soon.
• CONFRONT – Facing yourself to see what is true that you can learn, correct, or improve. Responsible people develop a sense of reality and move into an action mode. That takes courage. A responsible person prods himself to action when things require attention.

In our efforts to operate in a “lean” manner, responsibility is a fundamental.

We want to create ways to do things better and sustain them. Responsible teammates will ensure we maintain that standard.

We want to identify wastes and eliminate them. Responsible people draw attention to waste and participate in achieving the elimination.

The examples are many. But, a team of folks who endeavor to become responsible will win every time against those who dodge responsibility.