Topic: Owning responsibility

One facet of leadership I’m constantly reminded of is taking ownership when things don’t go as planned. Even when those situations feel out of your control, that responsibility still falls on you. It’s necessary to find out where things went wrong, analyze, and come up with the right approach to avoid or improve those situations for the future.

This applies if you’re leading a team or taking lead on a project. The buck stops with you and it’s up to you to progress forward and learn from past mistakes. In core support we’re always thinking of ways we can improve our process, some things work and some don’t. When they don’t, yeah it’s a pain but you learn to keep moving on, always learning from those mistakes and strive to improve.

When things do go well, it’s important to give credit where credit is due and not take all the glory yourself. It helps build confidence with those you work with and lets those who have done the hard work know that they are appreciated.

Referenced articles:

1. https://hbr.org/2012/08/take-ownership-of-your-actions
2. http://www.forbes.com/sites/jackzenger/2015/07/16/taking-responsibility-is-the-highest-mark-of-great-leaders/#46803fea1d0b
3. https://hbr.org/2011/10/why-good-leaders-pass-the-cred

-- David Dimov (Lead QA Analyst)