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Taking Responsibility

I’m breaking with tradition. Despite the fact that it’s the last newsletter of the year, I’m not going to write about goals or resolutions, or even about looking back at all the amazing things you did in 2008.

Instead, I’m going to answer a question I get asked every so often: what’s the single most important thing you think anyone, at any point in their career, needs to do?

Take responsibility.

It’s really that simple. From there a whole host of things tend to naturally flow and unfold. I list a few of them below, but first, let me go into a little more detail about what I mean by “taking responsibility.”

As kids, we’re taught to take responsibility for our mistakes. This is fine; I’m all for learning from what went wrong, and certainly we should own up to our role in whatever happened.

And it misses a big, hugely important part of the picture.

Take responsibility for your successes too! Don’t shuffle them off (“Well, it was really the team’s hard work...”). Don’t discount or denigrate them (“Oh, it was nothing, really.”). And don’t let other people take credit.

People, including yourself, will believe what you tell them. So if you tell them, and yourself, that it was all the team’s effort rather than yours, or that it wasn’t really anything special, everyone who hears you will believe you. Even if you spent nights and weekends for the last six months creating an end result of utter beauty and near perfection, they’ll believe you if you tell them it wasn’t anything, really. And so will you — except part of you will know it’s not true, and will feel resentful, frustrated, and unmotivated.

Besides, you’re not giving the other person much credit when you tell them that they’re wrong about the great work you did. Last time I looked, contradicting your boss’s or co-workers’ opinions wasn’t top on anyone’s list of great career moves.

So what does happen when you take responsibility for your successes? Here are three of the most likely and most rewarding.

You’ll feel better — and do better work

When you hear yourself accepting and agreeing with compliments and giving yourself credit for your hard work and good results, you’ll feel good about yourself and proud of your work. It may seem too simple to be true, but there’s something magical about taking responsibility for your accomplishments.

When you feel good about your work, you naturally start doing even better work.

So when someone tells you that you did a great job, instead of shuffling it off, say, “Thank you! You’re right — I’m really pleased with what I did.” (Or “what we did” if it was a team effort.)

You’ll gain crediblity and visibility

The most-common reason given for not promoting someone (especially if that someone is a woman) is “Not confident enough.”

A perceived lack of confidence can do your career unbelievable harm, without your ever knowing it. When you step up and take responsibility for the excellence of your work, you instantly both appear and feel more confident.

When you’ve got that level of real confidence (we’re not talking about arrogance here), people notice. You become more impressive, and your opinions and actions gain more respect. With credibility comes visibility. Confidence, credibility, visibility — they all add up to ...

You get promoted, recognized, rewarded

The shortest path to promotions and rewards is pretty straightforward: do good, solid, thoughtful work; take responsibility for it; and then cultivate the credibility and visibility that comes from your confidence.

Of course, you may need to ask for what you want, whether it’s a promotion, a pay raise, or an opportunity. Your chances of getting a “yes” when you ask — both in terms of the inner certainty you need to ask convincingly, and the external impression that others have of you — are much higher when you’ve consistently taken responsibility for your success.

It really is — and isn’t — this simple

I’ve stripped it down to the very barest of bones, but then, the initial question was quite simple: what’s the single most important thing anyone, at any point in their career, needs to do? And the simple answer really is, take responsibility.

The less-simple part starts with doing good work and understanding the broader context within which your work exists. Only you can answer whether you (a) are doing good work, and (b) understand that broader context.

The broader context is made up of far too many factors to discuss in this article, and includes political forces that may well be beyond your ability to influence. Nonetheless, when you take responsibility for your achievements, you’re much more likely to succeed even when the political environment is toxic. (I’ll be talking more about context in upcoming articles and workshops.)

So although I’m not in favor of goals and resolutions, here’s a piece of advice for you in your career — and indeed, in your life: Take responsibility in 2009!

“You’ve achieved success in your field when you don’t know whether what you’re doing is work or play.” Warren Beatty, 1937- , American Academy Award- and Golden Globe Award-winning actor, screenwriter, producer, and director.

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