Yearly Archives: 2020

take more responsibility

Have Employees Take More Responsibility and Initiative

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Some people tend to take more responsibility and initiative than others. There are two reasons for this. One is related to the human type and the other to their level of personal growth.


In the middle of the five levels of personal growth is the Conformist level. At this level people tend to play it safe and follow the rules. This is good for jobs that require a lot of repetitive tasks or to continuously meet pre-determined standards.


take more responsibility

But if we want more autonomous employees who once experienced on the job have the confidence to make their own decisions then we need to do three things to encourage more responsible behavior.

  1. Ask questions rather than giving answers. When an employee comes to you for a decision or so solve a problem ask them what they think they should do. They usually know the answer but might me afraid to make a mistake. Reinforce their idea and let them act. Follow-up and see how they did and give positive feedback. You can also use a past example to remind them of how a similar decision was made in the past.
  2. Set a performance improvement goal. Always have an employee work on one or two personal performance improvement goals. One could be skill related and the other a behavior. This gives you the opportunity to have them grow beyond the Conformist level of development and to reinforce their growth and success.
  3. Have them participate in team problem solving sessions. Use team brainstorming to address problems or improvement initiatives and make sure all employees contribute their ideas. This way they become comfortable with taking risk and thinking creatively in a controlled environment.

Acting on these three guidelines will build more responsible and autonomous employees that will lead to more time for the leader to think and work strategically.


levels of growth

The Levels of Growth and How it Impacts Human Behaviour & Performance

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A person’s level of growth will have a direct impact on how they take responsibility and perform on the job. This is related to the dimensions of life and the maturity of an individual that I discussed in my last article and video.


This approach to understanding human behaviour and performance what is taught by Dr. Michael Durst in his training Programs Management by Responsibility and Personal Responsibility In Developing Excellence Pride.


There are five levels of personal growth As explained by Dr. Durst. The  levels are:

  1. Unconscious
  2. Self-protective
  3. Conformist
  4. Achievement
  5. Responsible

At the lower levels people have a hard time functioning and responding well to situations and this affects the dimensions of life. For example, if someone is unconscious about their health and and not taking responsibility for themselves, they will have difficulty functioning in all the dimensions and experience a lot of stress and anxiety.


levels of growth

At any time, someone can go from the responsible level to the self-protective level in reaction to a person or situation. This would make sense when we are threatened but these situations are rare. A responsible person may become self-protective when in a conflict with someone but will quickly realize the destructiveness of this to the relationship and will take responsible action to resolve the conflict.


In the same situation someone who functions a lot at the self-protective level will tend to withdraw and blame the other person and feel victimized.


Many people spend a lot of their lives at the conformist level, wanting to fit in, be liked and accepted by others and follow the rules. The problem here is an avoidance of risk and change, tending rather to play safe. The main problem is a lack of initiative and problem solving.


The achievement level person is highly competitive and gets their self-esteem from their accomplishments and what they acquire.  


As we grow and learn to take more responsibility for our lives, we can function at higher levels in all the dimensions of life. Therefore, continuous personal development is key to functioning at the highest level one can.


The responsible level has also been called the fully developed human being, the self-actualized and the self-realized person. At this level of development people function extremely well in all the dimensions of life. For an organization to grown and develop it must hire and develop people that assume full responsibility for themselves.


Change in organizations due to external circumstances requires a more agile and flexible workforce who can be empowered to solve problems autonomously and practice continuous improvement. This can only be accomplished by hiring and developing responsible, fully functioning employees.


Here is a good resource for personal development and self-awareness.


employee development

HOW THE PSYCHOLOGICAL MATURITY OF AN EMPLOYEE CAN DEFINE THEIR BEHAVIOR & PERFORMANCE

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When we reach adulthood, we may think we become fully mature. But if we stop growing in all the dimensions of life, we can become stagnant and lose our effectiveness.


The dimensions of life according to Dr. Michael Durst who developed the training program Management by Responsibility are:

  1. Emotional Response
  2. Intellectual Functioning
  3. Activity Involvement
  4. Self-Discipline
  5. Relationships
  6. Physical State
  7. Spiritual Dimension

The key according to Durst is to continue to grow and be conscious of ourselves. This becomes apparent in how we respond to situations. The more conscious we are, the more effective we are in responding to and dealing with people and circumstances. Durst call this stage of growth the Responsible level.


When someone blames something or someone for what’s happening at work or in their lives, they are not taking responsibility for their own response to the situation. They are then functioning at one of the lower levels called unconscious or self-protective.


Suppose someone has a bad turn in their relationship with their spouse and they become very emotional. If they don’t show up for work or come to work and not get anything done, they are being ineffective in their response to the situation.


Of course, it’s normal to feel down when something negative happens like this, but more emotionally mature people will bounce back quickly and find solutions to the problem. Less effective people will let their emotional state worsen and could become depressed and unable to function.


When someone is functioning poorly in one of the seven dimensions it affects all the other dimensions of life. For example, if someone does not take care of their health properly their physical state will be poor. This will lower their emotional state, their ability to think and to complete their activities properly. It will also affect their spiritual well-being and their relationships.


The only way to become effective in all the dimensions of life is to continue to grow, understand oneself and be balanced in all the dimensions. Taking full responsibility for oneself is really the key, no fault, no blame.


So how do you develop employees to take full responsibility for themselves in all the seven dimensions of life? First is to hire mature employees who not only have the skills you require but also have developed a responsible attitude towards work and life.


The other way is to provide ongoing training that includes aspects of personal development so people continue to challenge themselves and understand they can continue to reach higher.


The result of highly responsible and mature individuals is greater personal satisfaction, better health and a longer more joyful life.


Here is an interesting resource to help people better understand themselves and become more responsible https://www.tprf.org/programs/peace-education-program/


leadership coaching

Employees Today want a Coach not a Manager

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I am helping a client recruit a new employee and while going through some resumes found one person who seemed to fit the job well regarding experience, knowledge and skills.


I arranged a phone interview and discovered that the person wanted to change jobs because they felt they were not being developed and that the boss was micromanaging them.


The job market is very competitive for good talent and as an employer you need to do everything you can to retain your staff, especially good performers.  You need to provide more than a dental or medical plan but also career growth opportunities, training and good leadership.


The Right Leadership Style

Good leadership today means a style of leadership that uses coaching more often than managing or supervising.  You still need to manage performance, but you do it differently.  Rather than checking up on the person you set goals and objectives with them and coach them on reaching their targets.


This is done much easier with experienced employees because they know the job well and can see what can be improved. As a coach your job is to make sure that the goals they set are aligned with the team, department and organization and include a personal development goal.


Support Commitments by the Leader

It is also important that as a leader you commit to specific support initiatives so that they are not blocked in doing their job and achieving their goals. For example, an employee goal could be to reduce errors by paying more attention to detail on certain tasks, but they are also forced to answer customer calls while they are working. Perhaps the support required is to transfer the task of taking calls to another employee, at least for part of the day.


Set Coaching Review Sessions

Once you have agreed on the performance commitment goals with the employee, you then set review coaching sessions. There are more like discussions on how well the employee is doing and to help them overcome obstacles. It is also an opportunity to discuss your support commitments and set new action steps if required.


You can use my goal planning worksheet to set goals with employees and the win-win agreement process and form to put agreements in writing.