“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself, any direction you choose.” Dr Seuss
Dr. Seuss has been providing great advice to children for years. And while the above mentioned passage is great advice, it assumes that one realizes their own control in situations. It requires personal accountability. Personal accountability seems to be missing far too often in organizations today. Consider the number of conversations you have had with those in your organization about missed deadlines, failed projects, or performance misses. How often do those conversations result in a list of excuses?
- If my boss just understood how it really is….
- The economy has really hurt….
- Well if the customers would just….
- I’m doing the job of four people with no extra pay….
The list continues and I am sure we could fill pages with all of the reasons why people can’t meet their objectives. When the focus is here, the behavior will continue. The deadlines will continue to get missed, and the projects will continue to fail. And the fingers will continue to point.
The good news is that when the focus shifts to what is possible and what can be done, change can occur. The challenge is making the choice and helping those in your organization assume the personal accountability to make the choice to move out of the victim cycle of excuses and focus on action. Teach them what personal accountability is and how to put it into to action. You can start today with the next excuse.
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Sheri Mazurek is a training and human resource professional with over 16 years of management experience, and is skilled in all areas of employee management and human resource functions, with a specialty in learning and development. She is available to help you with your Human Resources and Training needs on a contract basis. For more information send an email to smazurek0615@gmail.com or visit www.sherimazurek.com. Follow me on twitter @Sherimaz