100% Responsibility

When we stop blaming others and take full accountability for the results realized by our team, we create success for ourselves and for others.

Is there something in your life that is not going as well as it should? Perhaps it is a project at work. Your finances. A close relationship. If you are like most people, you probably are willing to take some of the responsibility for things going awry, but you want others to take their fair share. After all, how many times have you heard the old saying, “This is a 50-50 relationship”?

Probably many times, but the fact of the matter is this: 50-50 relationships result in failure. Think about it. Have you ever accomplished anything worthwhile that required only 50 percent of your energy?

That’s why we sometimes also hear, “This is a 100-100 relationship.” But 100-100 relationships are nothing more than sophisticated 50-50 relationships. They, too, result in failure, usually with one of the parties saying, “I gave my 100 percent, but they just didn’t give theirs.”

The truth is that when we view our lives through the perspective that we are all 100-percent responsible for our own success and that everyone else is 0-percent responsible, we begin to see dramatic results. Wait a minute. What about the person who, to use a familiar metaphor, simply drops the ball? Can I be responsible for another person’s errors or incompetence?

Perhaps not, but think of the concept of 100-percent responsibility as a pair of glasses, a way of looking at the world. Perhaps the quarterback is not responsible for the receiver dropping the ball, but if he decides he is 100-percent responsible for the success of the team, his actions change. He stops blaming others. He discovers creative solutions. His options expand. He begins to take control of the situation rather than letting the situation control him.

No, we cannot control everything that happens to us or around us, but most of us have much more control over the world around us than we ever imagined. And it is only when we begin to take 100-percent responsibility for the results we want to create that we begin to understand fully the power within us to create success for ourselves and others.

How can you and I take 100-percent responsibility for the success of the Great Lakes Bay Region?

For more ideas on improving leadership, communication, teamwork, sales, employee engagement, and organizational performance, visit www.dalecarnegie.com, or contact Dan Handley at dan.handley@dalecarnegie.com, or call 989-799-7760 or 1-800-518-3253.