Success Secrets and Stories
To share management leadership concepts that actually work.
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Success Secrets and Stories
Reimagining Responsibility: Redefine Personal and Professional Approach
Have you ever wondered what truly defines responsible leadership and how it shapes our personal and professional lives? Join Greg Powell and me as we unravel the complexities of this essential quality, drawing inspiration from Dr. Michael Durst’s transformative teachings in "Being the Cause." By sharing stories from my journey—from the creation of my first book, "Building Your Leadership Toolbox," to my narrative-driven second book—we highlight the tools and insights that have guided our discussions. Learn about the pivotal role of communication tools like ProWritingTeam, Grammarly, and Copilot in refining our storytelling and leadership approaches, and hear about the memorable compliment that underscored the reliability every leader strives to embody.
In our conversation, we tackle the art of balancing accountability with creativity, illustrated through a Six Sigma example that emphasizes high standards without errors. We discuss the dual nature of trust and delegation as cornerstones of effective leadership while acknowledging the challenges of being perceived as inflexible and the necessity for direct communication, especially in urgent situations. Greg wraps up with powerful action statements that serve as a beacon for those on their journey to becoming more responsible leaders. Tune in to explore the benefits of self-discipline, problem-solving, and effective time management as we invite you to reflect on your path toward embodying responsibility in both your career and personal life.
Presented by John Wandolowski and Greg Powell
Hello everyone and welcome to the the podcast Success Secrets and Stories. I'm your host, john Wanaloski, and I'm here with my co-host and friend, greg Powell, greg.
Speaker 1:Hey, everybody yeah.
Speaker 2:And today I wanted to do something a little unusual. I wanted to do a reset of our podcast and talk about the real purpose behind what Greg and I had talked about originally almost three years ago, of sharing the idea of what responsibility looks like and the kind of characteristics and what that description really comes from, from our understanding of going through Dr Michael Durst's program on MBR. And I found this wonderful format because I'm working on a book, another book that is really generated more of a story. One of the challenges I saw with my first book, building your Leadership Toolbox, is that it's very mechanical and it was taking more of a textbook and trying to use that textbook and showing more of how it was applied in my life and the things that I thought were really important from Dr Durst's book called being the Cause and try to bring that right into the context so that you would have an idea of where these ideas were generated from. It wasn't from me, it was somebody who is a doctorate in psychology that really understood his concepts and made a wonderful training class, a wonderful seminar that I applied for my entire career, to be honest, and I was going through trying to find some way to do a better job of describing the purpose of being a responsible person, being a responsible manager. They're kind of tied at the hip. There isn't really somebody who understands how to be a responsible manager that can apply that in their home existence, in their home life. It's probably more important that it's applied throughout, that it isn't used selectively. It should be your character itself that makes a responsible person a logical next step.
Speaker 2:So when I went through this exercise, I found a very interesting writing program that is helping me writing this second book, and it's by a company called ProWritingTeam and it was from an article that they had in terms of describing somebody who is responsible, as such a light bulb moment. I thought it was so dead on. So when people have asked me the question of what is a responsible person, what is a responsible manager? Look like this software program the creators of ProWritingTeam. Their nickname is that they're a grammar guru, but it's much more than that. It's a very good approach in terms of creating characteristics and giving a language to that description. So I'll admit it right now my English teachers are probably going through shock that I'm writing books, but it's a subject that I know very well, so therefore I feel far more competent and stretching a little bit and writing about a subject. This software program, prowriting, and the software programs that I have used like Grammarly and Copilot and some other tools, have helped me be a better communicator and that's kind of like the idea that I think I want to start with. If you're responsible, you're finding the tools to give you the ability to communicate.
Speaker 2:I have found these three tools is very helpful, so I want to share this one and one of the categories that they have for their description to help you understand the writing capacity of character development is the probable causes of being responsible where the individuals or the characters of your story are being assigned tasks of importance or requiring a reliable behavior. Experience the negative consequences of working with someone who is not responsible or a leader who is avoiding responsibilities and repeating the same mistakes. Being praised or being rewarded for responsible behavior that reinforces that kind of activity but that usually is others recognizing it in the character and a natural responsible person having the inclination for structure, order planning go hand in hand with responsibility attitude. Growing up in an environment where responsibility is highly valued and molded by parents and caregivers, that's like a star. That was literally the environment that I was in, my parents valued the responsibility and the truth and accountability, and I always have to giggle when I think back. My dad was from the old school and it was the firstborn had be the leader of the family if something happened to him and he was always preparing me to lead the family and he was teaching responsibility at a very early age in my opinion, a little too early, but it's all part of what we learn as we grow up and how our parents teach us those things. Responsibility was something that was taught to me from a very early age.
Speaker 2:Now, attitudes that are related to being a responsible person and this is where I think it was interesting from a writer's perspective. What are those characteristics that should be demonstrated? And this was like on the mark of hitting the buttons of what I interpret as somebody who was being responsible, demonstrating self-discipline or self-control, being honest and transparent. Being honest and transparent, taking ownership of one's mistakes and correcting them, prioritizing obligations and commitments, being responsible and dependable, showing respect for rules, laws and authority, being proactive and taking the initiative, being accountable for one's actions and decisions that's a little bit of a repetitive and planning or organizing tasks and activities. And really, when you're thinking about it. When I'm trying to train other managers and other directors, the things that you usually are trying to demonstrate and you're trying to show proficiency in are exactly those kinds of subjects the discipline, the transparency taking on and, I think, one of the highest compliments I got as a manager. I was working in a manufacturing environment and a general manager pulled me to the side and said you know, I appreciate your honesty, but there's nobody in that room that I trust when they say that you'll take the responsibility to get the results. I have to check on the others. You're the only one that I give the responsibility to and I know the job's going to get done. Highest compliment I've ever gotten because he could see that sense of responsibility and how I conducted myself and how my department operated.
Speaker 2:So in the writer's context of this pro-writing software, thoughts and struggles link to being responsible, and now these are where the little pieces of my life start to kind of rise back up to the top. Need to control and the order of their lives and their surroundings. You want to control it, but the truth is you can't. You can maybe steer it, but you can't control it. Fear of letting others down or disappointing them Too? True. The tendency to put others ahead of your own needs, sometimes to self-neglect True, and I have stood in front of some ignorant executives that were picking on my staff Yep, at my own cost of my career, but that was my job because I was their manager. I was their director. That's what you do if you're responsible.
Speaker 2:The tendency to take on too much responsibility and being overwhelmed I think I just talked about that. But, yes, dead on the desire to do the right thing, even if it's difficult or unpopular. Yes, without a doubt. If I was going to try to describe in the shortest sentence possible, that would probably be the number one. The next one is also an interesting element that I have to teach people to understand, in a responsibility kind of approach, the difficulty of delegating tasks to others and trusting them to do a good job. Actually, the trust part, it's a little bit simpler for me.
Speaker 2:If you use this process of being responsible, I trust the individuals that are given the responsibility, but don't lie, don't cheat, just be honest and if you have a problem, don't try to disguise it and don't try to hide it. A strong work ethic and dedication to achieving the goals yes. A sense of duty and obligation kind of repetitive, a little bit guilt and self-criticism when making a mistake or falling short of your own expectations. Yes, yes, without a doubt Now, the emotions that are associated with being responsible, and I think I kind of tipped the hand on some of these examples. We've just talked about Duty, commitment, conscientious time management, trustworthy organizational skills, accountability, self-discipline, mature, dependable, reliable, wonderful terms that are usually used with people who understand the concepts. So I've talked to all about the things that are positive for people who are responsible and understand what that truly means. But, greg, I'm going to tap your talents on the people that you have learned and talked to from a human resources perspective that really didn't get the message of responsibility. Why don't you pick us up from there?
Speaker 1:Thanks, john. So let's talk a little bit about body language, and I told a story about this some time ago. I was at a big meeting. My boss was texting me and I looked down at the text I'm trying to pay attention to this meeting and he said the text said smile. And I looked up and I thought, oh my gosh, I've got this grimace on my face. I'm the leader of my function and I'm in front of these very important people and I'm so caught up into this I'm expressing myself in a way I didn't want to. So let's talk a little bit about that body language.
Speaker 1:Avoid fidgeting or nervous habits. Sometimes you remember folks that had a pen. Click the pen off, click it off, click it on right. Oh God, yes, just works you over, right. How about posture Standing up straight with the shoulders back? Not a good time to be slouching or hunched over this one. It goes through pretty much everything in leadership. Maintaining eye contact. You're not looking away, not looking up, not looking down. Maintaining eye contact. We talk a lot about this, taking ownership of mistakes, and then, yeah, it's OK to apologize when it's necessary, but first if you made a mistake. That's a great leadership display to your folks that you're willing to own that, one of the things I've been told over years I'm pretty good at. I don't know if I see it that way or not, but keeping a calm and composed demeanor. I'm not sure if I'm doing it or not or I did it, but I can tell you it's important.
Speaker 2:You do it very well, but you have also helped people who are overly excited to be calm. You've been doing that in terms of helping people from your human resources perspective all throughout your career, so you've helped other people understand that too.
Speaker 1:Thank you, john. It's been my attempt Also, speaking clearly and confidently, having that punch in the voice. You're not wavering, using open and expressive hand gestures. You don't have to keep your hands by your side, in fact, don't do that. You know, if you can use your hands in a way to uh, get people's attention and sell a point, go ahead and do that. Putting your head up and down we call it nodding, and nodding in agreement. Yes, that kind of body language really shows that you're being responsible. It shows that you're paying attention, that you're into this and, as my colleague is doing right now, leaning forward to show interest right, that's a body language thing that says, oh my gosh, this person is really into what's going on here. They're being responsible.
Speaker 1:We're going to talk a little bit about behaviors linked to being responsible. So here are some of those behaviors. One being proactive in finding solutions to problems right, not sitting on the sidelines, but getting ahead of things, taking care of one's own needs and responsibility right, be responsible for yourself, john, and I talked about this from time to time, and we talked about it earlier today. Being reliable and punctual my gosh, I was in human resources for most of my career. Just be there and be there on time right. Two of the easiest things to do Be reliable and be punctual, admitting mistakes and taking ownership of them. Again, you're modeling a behavior to your employees. Some may want to be a supervisor, some may want to be a manager, but admit to your mistakes and help find solutions, planning ahead and being prepared for potential problems. You don't walk into the room and say what are we doing today, what are we doing tomorrow? You know, look ahead, be thoughtful about your intentions, of meetings, of gatherings, of activities, of where things are going. A big one and John's talked a lot about this communications Now communicating effectively and honestly with others, and that should be one of the things you prioritize. That's something you start off with. That you're going to say the words that people understand to get to a certain place.
Speaker 1:Follow through on commitments and promises. Don't make idle promises. Don't make idle commitments. They need to mean something. So if you say it, you need to do it. And then, finally, being accountable for one's actions and their consequences. You might make a mistake and it might be a penalty to pay, but so be it. You have to be accountable as a leader. You just really there's no choice here.
Speaker 1:So let's talk about stereotypes of responsible characters to avoid, and what I'm going to share with you are examples of folks that came into my office in human resources. So these are for real One being a pushover or lacking assertiveness. You need a spine, you need a backbone, you need to stand up tall to be a peer, to be a responsible individual, being overly cautious or hesitant to make decisions when people say is this okay? What do you think? Am I making a mistake here? Hey, at some point you just have to suck it up and don't point at other folks. Don't do the blame game. Be responsible.
Speaker 1:Perfectionism to the point of being unrealistic or unattainable, to where there has no value, you know, trying to get that perfect thing, so what? Make sure it's right, it's accurate, but don't worry about being a perfectionist. Be realistic and make sure that what you're trying to do is attainable. You won't believe this, but it's true. There are boring and dull personalities out there and personally I felt bad for some because there were some really nice people. But that doesn't get the job done. You've got to have some activity, some fire, some juice whatever you want to call it in how you present yourself and how you interact with others to be perceived as being responsible, being overly serious or judgmental. All right, how many times we've talked about yeah, he's kind of judgy. She's kind of judgy there. Boy, this guy is so serious. Does he take anything at face value? What's going on here? It's not that big of a deal. So try to avoid those types of appearances Inability to take risks or try new things.
Speaker 1:Again, trying to play it safe Can't do that. As a leader, you've got to stick your neck out Reasonable right, reasonable risk but you've got to take risks. You've got to try new things. You're supposed to bring in new processes, new creative ideas, so you're going to have to try new things. You can't sit with what's been there forever and ever. You're not going to get any process improvement that way. And then, finally, lack of spontaneity or flexibility. You've got to be willing to just take off right. You see something, let's go 90%. We say, if you're 90% there, just go with it right and demonstrate that flexibility. Well, I know we've always done it like this, but why don't we try Janie's idea and go this direction and be willing to, as a leader, do something different, john.
Speaker 2:So, again, to try to describe what a responsible person is and what does it mean to be a responsible leader just to reinforce some of the things that came from this writing exercise, especially when I was in healthcare and with the concept that was always in the back of my mind that, no matter what I did in my job, if I'm not keeping the patient in mind, and that they're in the most vulnerable position sitting in a hospital bed, we are dependent upon giving them the safest and the most comfortable environment for them to heal as possible. And, trust me, as I say this, I can feel that sense of doing the best you can and not accepting. You know, that's that perfectionism that you had to stop, because we are human. You can only take it so far, but it was setting that bar so high. I think that the line that keeps on rolling in my head every time I say this is somebody was teaching the concept of taking responsibility, and it was in the Six Sigma environment and how it had to be the best you can produce. And their example was well, let's pretend for a second that we're talking about a procedure, that you're in charge of babies at a nursery, and how many errors are you allowed, meaning, how many babies can you drop? Well, if you've got any number, it's not acceptable. It is a zero requirement. You don't drop babies. And that's what the teacher was trying to get across. That care for making a product should have that kind of sense of not accepting errors and a wonderful kind of teaching moment, moment, difficulty, delegating tasks or trusting others.
Speaker 2:I think the difficulty has come to me whenever I gave that trust and it was basically not respected and that individual usually ended up being fired. Because that was my responsibility giving them the trust, giving them all the tools to be successful, but then they don't. They don't get a free pass. They have to be responsible for their results at taking 100% responsibility for what I do, but you have to take 100% responsibility for what you do. When that delegation or that trust is violated, that's when those numbers start to change, is violated. That's when those numbers start to change, being viewed as being uptight or inflexible or too direct, guilty. I have been told that I am far too direct and I should be careful when I apply those kind of direct conversations. I think the biggest problem that I had with being too direct is when we were in an emergency or something that had happened on the site and action was required. There wasn't that opportunity to be politically wise, there was the responsibility to act and get results, and that usually was the time that I would get in trouble and they would talk to me after. But when I kind of pressed them I have the skill set I chose not to use that skill set because of the environment that we were in.
Speaker 2:Sometimes people who are responsible have to do that too. It's a lot easier to be, you know, open and exchange of ideas, but if there's a fire that's literally glowing in the background, that's not the time to exercise proper English. You want direction. And then the other element that the writers caught on is that there's the anxiety when plans don't work. The wisdom is to know when it's going awry, having all those butterflies and then finding a way to pull the resources back together again and come out a plan that works, even though it's the second attempt. You can't get everything right the first time, but not accepting that as an excuse reorganize, do it again.
Speaker 2:The positives of being responsible is that it encourages problem solving. It builds on trust. Responsibility also helps with self-discipline and self-reliance. Responsibility promotes the sense of purpose and accomplishment. Being responsible is being accountable for your actions and your decisions, and also a little bit of pride that goes with that, and also a little bit of pride that goes with that. Being responsible also means that you have demonstrated better time management approaches and better organizational skills.
Speaker 2:I can tell you that being responsible, you also need to communicate the positive things that you have done and your department have done, because quite often people who are very responsible aren't into promoting. It's a different skill set, but you still need to do that in order to be helpful for your department, not just yourself. And it helps to be able to understand the skill sets of prioritizing tasks and defining goals effectively. I have found where I was the weakest is when I was giving goals and I would not be direct. Uh, define the goals to be very precise and I know I just talked about being too direct but sometimes goals, if you're, if you're not being effective in trying to communicate what you're looking for for an end result, you're not going to get that end result. So the clearer a goal is defined, the better you're going to get as a result. Greg, I think you have a few ideas on what that sounds like. I do.
Speaker 1:John, Thank you. So let's talk a little bit about verbal expressions of the responsible individual. There are several of them. I actually call them action statements because I think that's what they really are. I will fulfill my commitments. I will right.
Speaker 1:I sign on the dotted line. I'm going to do what I said I was going to do. I will own up to my mistakes. We've been talking about that today. If I made a mistake, I'm not going to try to blame somebody else, point the finger at someone else. I'm going to own up to it and also help look for a solution. I will be organized and prepared. That's on me. I will take the time to make sure that happens. I am accountable for my actions Not my assistant, not someone that reports to me, not my boss but I am accountable for my actions.
Speaker 1:I will follow through on my promises Very close to fulfilling my commitments. It just means that if you say it, it should happen. There's no question about that. If you make a promise we're not talking about pinky promises here In the business situation if you make a promise, you need to deliver on that promise. I will be reliable and trustworthy and if you want the team to be able to really work successfully and effectively. They got to know that they can trust you and you've got to be reliable.
Speaker 1:I will prioritize my duties and responsibilities. That's no one else's responsibility, that's mine. I prioritize what I need to do to help the group, the goal, the objective, make it successful and all the responsibilities that come with that. Here's a simple one I will take care of it. Right, that's me stating an action that's going to happen. As a leader, as a responsible human being, I will take care of it. It's done, Got that. I will be proactive in addressing issues. What are we saying here? You're going to be looking ahead and trying to ward off bad things by being vigilant and coming up with ideas to keep things on the straight and narrow path that you're trying to get them on, John.
Speaker 2:So, being that this is a software designed for people who are writing. They were talking about characters that show that sense of responsibility, like Frodo from the Lord of the Rings and then probably the last one is Hermione Granger from the Harry Potter series. All these characters showed that they had a sense of responsibility. Again, I just thought that this was a great time to step back and talk about the pro-writing aid team, which they define themselves as the grammar gurus. It's a wonderful software program. They have a free, limited service. Then they have two other products a premium a wonderful software programs. They have a free, uh uh, limited service. Then they have two other products a premium and a premium pro. I I would strongly suggest, if you're going to be writing a book, this seems to be just, uh, an outstanding platform and I I strongly recommend it.
Speaker 2:So I wanted to really take advantage of resetting and talking about responsibility, because I had the opportunity to work with a team and we created an audio book. And what's kind of fun about the audio book? We had two character actors that did my voice and did Dr Durst's voice, and Dr Durst, again, is the creator of the MBR Program, management by Responsibility, and it was my attempt to say how I conducted myself and how I saw those words that I used from his book being the Cause, how I applied it in real life and how it actually affected the things that I did and the way that I accomplished all the things that I was able to do within management and saw that reflected back into people who reported to me. So, if you get the opportunity, it's on Amazon, it's in Barnes Noble. The audio book is actually done pretty well. I can tell you that it's a textbook format, so the beginning of the book is a little slow because it's building the story. You can go through the first couple of chapters quickly, but the heart of the book is like the third and the fourth chapter and on, and give it a listen. I think it's actually something that you might find interesting and entertaining and helpful all at the same time, if you like what you've heard. Yeah, building your leadership toolbox is available on the Amazon and Barnes and Noble that I just talked about.
Speaker 2:So is the audio book, so is the paperback, so is the paperback, so is the hardcover. It's a lot of different formats, Kind of like the audio book out of that group. This podcast is available on what you're listening to, thank you. It's also available on Apple and Google and Spotify and other popular formats. Dr Durst's book and his MBR program is available at successandgrowthacademycom, and if you want to contact us, you can contact us at wwwauthorjawcom, and the music has been brought to you by my grandson. So we want to hear from you. Drop us a line, send us a note. We have changed our platform and we have learned a lot from your input too what you like to hear from and how we can enhance your learning process. So thanks Greg, thanks John.
Speaker 1:As always.
Speaker 2:Next time yeah.