The Beauty of Personal Responsibility

Here at LinkedIn, I have the tremendous opportunity to explore workplace issues that come to my attention. Some of the topics reflect my own experiences with work - others emerge from reader e-mails or comments. Interestingly, over time, I have noticed a pattern. It seems that by far, the most shared posts discuss, or are related to taking personal responsibility in relation to work and career. The posts aren't usually titled as such - but the themes center on a point of view that encourages taking ownership of career challenges and taking action.

What I find fascinating about personal responsibility is that in many cases, we ignore its existence and hesitate to embrace it. On some level, we may be worried that if we take ownership of career problem, we might not find a solution. Or if we do find a solution - that we won't be able to act on it. However, in many cases we simply fail to consider it. We become entrenched in our current vantage point, that we cannot impact our workplace experiences.

When we actually consider the risk and accept personal responsibility, we can derive a great amount of power from that decision. Somehow when the ball is bounced back into our "court", we realize that it is up to us to make our own work life choices. Then, somehow, we rise to occasion. It is both frightening - and liberating - at the very same time. But, that feeling of empowerment - can propel us forward.

Here is an example. A very common workplace complaint, is that individuals just don't seemto have enough time to become maximally effective. Frequently, this is attributed to the notion that others aren't respectful of our time and responsibilities. (Interruptions, etc.) However, if we shift this viewpoint slightly, to include a measure of personal responsibility we could ask the following: What role do I play in this scenario? Do I value my own time? Do my actions tell others that I do?

Of course, not every workplace problem can be impacted in this regard. However, if we learn to shift the "epicenter" concerning our work life challenges just a bit, we can afford ourselves the power to use our own skills and abilities to solve them - and things just might improve. We often hold the clues as to how to we could take responsibility, but we might not act. But, in many cases we could move forward in this way - bolstered by a healthy dose of self-compassion and a certain measure of trust in our inner voice.

Some ideas:

• Ditch blame.Assigning blame to a workplace problem rarely solves problems - but taking on ownership can. Leave blame at the door and move forward from there.
• Be bold. There is no time like the present. When considering an issue that you are experiencing, list 3 actions that you could employ tomorrow to affect it. No excuses.
• Imagine. Visualize your work life with the current problem or issue resolved. What areyou doing differently?

Have you ever hesitated to take personal responsibility for a workplace problem or setback? Did you come around? How did things turn out?