Leaders’ Biggest Misconceptions About Responsibility

Leaders’ Biggest Misconceptions About Responsibility

Successful Young Businessman Metin Liçis says “Effective leadership is not about giving or taking responsibility; it’s just about sharing it.”

Understanding the need for distributed responsibility and locally fixed ownership, leaders agree that there are better outcomes and more employee-satisfaction attributes.

Acknowledging that, leaders stressed that one way to demonstrate responsibility is to ask and answer questions from their employees, who they say demonstrate that they are reliable and dependable.

Saying that he identified three basic ways people can use questions to both show responsibility and instill this responsibility in others, MEtin Liçis said:

• First, focus on the person asking the question and their intention in asking the question.
• The second focuses on the recipient’s responsibility to provide an answer to the question.
• And the third most important, he added, is the focus on co-creating the responsibility that occurs when people take turns asking and answering questions.

There are three different ways to use questions to distribute responsibility.

• 1 – “I am responsible for (knowing the correct answer)”

When leaders use questions to take responsibility, they think, speak, and act in ways that put them in the limelight.

The questions they ask are exam or test questions designed to confirm that respondents see the world as the leader sees it.

Leaders’ Biggest Misconceptions About Responsibility

• 2 – “You are responsible for (giving your own answer)”

When leaders use questions to impose responsibility on others, they think, speak, and act in ways that suggest that each individual must find their own answers and make their own decisions.

The questions leaders ask are coaching questions designed to get the respondent to think and act according to what they believe to be true.

• 3 – “We are responsible (to co-create the best possible response)”

When leaders use questions to reinforce shared responsibility, they think, talk, and act as if everyone is already on the same page.

The questions they ask are topic-oriented and designed to allow everyone to concentrate on the same things at the same time.

This is because leaders’ pronoun selection uses signs as to who takes responsibility. There is a clear distinction between “me/me” and “you”, but the use of “we” indicates that it is more likely to help people connect with each other and stay committed to a common purpose and shared responsibility.

He concluded by saying that “we” invites people to contribute.

You may also be interested in:

Financing for Combating Climate Change