Who’s Reading Anyway? » Responsibility paradox

Responsibility paradox

Posted on May 14, 2009 by Tom

Half of all the managementbooks out there are about leadership, about giving your team the responsibility so they won’t bother you with all the small details. It seems like only in management, the higher up te ladder you are, the less time you have to yourself. It seems like you’re always cleaning someone else’s mess up, someone who didn’t take his responsibility.

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Does this sound familiar? You made your to do list and at the end of the day, you realize that 80% of your time spent working was solving everybody’s problems except your own’s. It really looks like you’re the only one who can keep this team afloat, because you’re the only one who really takes his responsibility. You’re frustrated because you trusted your team with a responsibility and they screwed up!

But responsibility is a tricky concept and the biggest misconception may be that giving someone responsibility doesn’t automatically mean he won’t make any mistakes. It like learning a language or riding a bike. You make mistakes, you get better, you move on. But management is so stressed for time that they don’t allow mistakes, because that means they have to invest more time into the problem… and that’s why they hired you?! But spending no time means no solution in the long run, and spending time means problems in the short run.

It’s not like employees try to avoid taking responsibility, on the contrary, they welcome it. It’s not a coincidence that ‘having more responsibility’ is climbing in the list of reasons what people expect in a job. And it’s also no coincidence that the reason why it’s so high up on that list is because few managers give it. Some managers don’t allow mistakes, it’s a waste of (their) time. Employees don’t want to make those mistakes, to keep the manager happy, but they avoid taking any responsibility to be sure they won’t make any. Weird how that turns out right?