Acceptance of Responsibility

Acceptance of Responsibility is the first quality that Brady and Woodward include in the Trilateral Leadership Ledger's factor of Tasks.

The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary defines acceptance as: the act of accepting something or someone : the fact of being accepted : acceptance of responsibility.

The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary defines responsibility as: 

1: the quality or state of being responsible: such as

a : moral, legal, or mental accountability

b : reliability, trustworthiness

2 : something for which one is responsible

 

President Harry S. Truman was famous for, among other things, having a sign on his desk in the Oval Office that stated 'The Buck Stops Here'.  It was his mantra and it served him well!

 

While in some ways this saying has become a bit of a cliché, it is a critical component for the effective leader.  Leaders are, in fact, responsible for the vision, culture, and success or failure of any organization.  Additional, leaders are responsible for the welfare of their teams and their individual members.  This cannot be successfully abdicated.  Many have tried and have ended up failing miserably.  Sometimes it takes a short amount of time for the failure to set in and sometimes it takes longer, but one way or the other the leader who does not take responsibility will fail.  Once a leader refuses to accept responsibility and starts to make excuses, they lose credibility and their leadership moral high ground.  When this happens, the culture becomes toxic and people spend more time looking over their shoulders and avoiding rather than being productive and getting the job done.

In order to be effective, leaders must be willing to accept responsibility not only to maintain the trust of the members of the organization but also because it is the right thing to do!

Chris Brady & Orrin Woodward: "Launching a Leadership Revolution."  Business Plus. New York. p.97