Ahh responsibility. You know that word. You’ve heard that word. And you’ve seen it in action. While there’s nothing wrong with having fun or wanting to be free from responsibility, there’s no escaping that responsibility is part of life and improving the state of quality of your life.
Don’t think so? Well, think about this – when you’re irresponsible or slow to do something you know you need to do, what happens? Can you say delays, setbacks, missed appointments, stress, and panic? Mm hmm and that’s just to name a few. Responsibility is a word that encompasses so much and yet sometimes we can take being responsible for granted. We can feel as though it’s okay to let some things fall by the wayside or continue to put them off.
For instance, as I’ve worked with a number of freelancers, I’ve come to find that some don’t take what they’re doing seriously by their communication style and ability to meet deadlines. You see when you’re running a business even if it’s a side hustle the way in which you communicate and complete jobs you said you would do speaks to your responsibleness or irresponsibleness.
And it shows your customers that you are a person they would want to do business with again or you’re someone that they want to avoid. Like the last freelancer I worked with, while business started off well, it didn’t end well. Because the freelancer couldn’t see that the word of the day was responsibility. If you’re going to accept responsibility the number one thing you must do is not blame shift.
This is my key takeaway from my last failed freelancer for my book cover project. Yes, I said failed, because the freelancer had personal issues. Yet, instead of saying that displayed the blame shift mindset of it’s not really my fault. Therefore, I had to inform the freelancer of this and how important communication, professionalism, and customer service is when running a business.
And my word of wisdom to you today is to remember in particular when you’re involved in any commitment when you have given your word to someone is to take ownership for your part. If you fail to do what you said or provide the expected result you must recognize you’re responsible for the situation and instead of blame shifting do these three things –
Number one – Take Ownership
I know you may say responsibility and ownership are the same. Well, not exactly as you can be responsible for something and still not own the responsibility. You make it seems as though because this and that happened or this person didn’t do this or that then you have no ownership in how the situation you failed to deliver results in turned out.
Ownership says I know you trusted me with a job or task and I didn’t follow through with action to get it done.
Number Two – Explain What Happened
Yes, you are an adult and still there are times in life where as grown and independent as you are Kings and Queens you need to explain. So, explain what happened without coming across as a victim or accusing someone else for what went wrong. And I’m not saying that others in your life or on your team can’t make your work or tasks challenging – they can, and still the objective is to overcome challenges to achieve the end goal.
Remember, whoever you’re dealing with believed in your ability otherwise they wouldn’t have trusted you, so the least you can do is sincerely tell them why you didn’t come through.
Number Three – Make It Right
No one wants or looks forward to being disappointed and when you don’t handle your responsibilities in a way that’s satisfactory that’s exactly what the other person feels. Disappointed, so make it right. Let that person know what and how you plan to rectify the situation to either get the task done as soon as realistically possible or how you’ve learned from this experience so that this failure won’t happen again.
By doing so you turn your failure into a life lesson learned and show the person who trusted you that you’re still trustworthy. And that is extremely valuable to the person you’re dealing with. At the core of any joint venture, friendship, partnership, or even romantic relationship is trust. As many people before me have said many times over, I say again, where there’s no trust, there’s no relationship.
That’s tough sometimes because trust is something we must work to build and yet we can so easily destroy by the simplest action or lack of action and takes so long to restore. Yet, when we maintain and nature our relationships both personal and professional it’s well worth it. And when our focus is on daily becoming more than we are and a better version of what we can be accepting responsibility is necessary.
So, today, take time to evaluate how you’ve handled challenges and the responsibilities you had and currently have and really seek to see how anything you didn’t quite nail could have been better, or improved upon for the next time around.
~We hear about accepting responsibility throughout our lives and when it comes down to it – hearing we should accept responsibility and actually accepting responsibility are two different things. And in order to accept responsibility we must look at our shortcomings and see that adjusting is a service of kindness to ourselves as well as others. ~Coach Sam
~EXALTED ROYALTY~ A C. E. SAM COMPANY
