In a recent article, Pia Lauritzen shared her insights on how leaders can create a sense of responsibility across their organisation. The key insight is that they can do so by smart use of questions – questions that shift the responsibility from them “Me” (self) to “You” (individual) to “Us”.
I think she is on to something here.
Taking all the responsibility on ourselves makes us feel like a hero or a martyr but doesnt necessarily help us achieve what we set out to. Making our employees responsible for the results questions the role we play and how we contribute as leaders. It is when all of us come together and work towards the common goals.
Being responsible for the ultimate results means that buck stops with us. That is what leaders are hired and expected to do.
Distributing responsibility across the team sensibly engages the entire team and helps find those who have the potential to lead. This also helps everyone on the team understand the role that they play and its importance in achieving the results. This also creates the conditions for them them to unleash their creativity and engage them fully.
Once the responsibility is distributed, our responsibility as a leader is then three-fold:
– Ensure that they have all the resources our teams need to fulfill their responsibility and
– Remove any and all roadblocks that they face in their pursuit of the results
– Maintain our own and our team’s focus on the results (long and short term).
You can read the entire article by Pia @ https://www.strategy-business.com/blog/What-leaders-get-wrong-about-responsibility.
You can also watch her and Hal Gregersen talk about the power of questions here.
