Have you ever stopped to consider how your actions affect others where you work?

If you were a water pumping station responsible for providing for the general public who would then drink your water – what condition would your water be in? Would it be clean and refreshing or dirty and metallic-tasting?

Have you even taken the time to stop and check your own water; moreover the impact of your water upon everyone else – your team mates, bosses, friends and family?

RESPONSIBILITY– is all about taking the time to test our waters and from there taking the appropriate measures to rectify that if we are polluting in any way, it is being cleansed so that it is harmless and drinkable for not just ourselves but for all others too.

In taking responsibility for yourself, there can be efficiency gains for the company also: for someone who is taking real care and respect in how they are operating at work is taking care of their water and the ripple effect that this/their water is creating. Deal with a client in a distracted or preoccupied state of mind, and the business will often not be won, or the client or message lost.

‘Ripple effect’

The issue is whether we are actually choosing to be aware of the ripple effect of our water – which flows from us and from there to all others both at work and outside, and if not – then why are we choosing to not be aware of our effects?

Inefficiency costs us personally, professionally and also it impacts on the business/company. Yet this is the way in which most products and services are made, manufactured and delivered – fast, speedy, quick, or hurried towards a target or deadline without real care and attention to the trail that is being left behind. The speediness or end result is congratulated without attention being paid to the way in which it was produced or serviced and therefore consumed by others.

Hence it is vital to check ourselves – the state in which we are choosing to operate in. (Or our water that then leaves our trail)

Real responsibility

If we could actually see what we are emitting or emanating (our trail) - that it looks, tastes or smells awful then we would take notice surely? – but the tendency is  to not see let alone be honest with ourselves over that which we find horrible or foul. Yet this is what taking responsibility is – not just looking at what ‘end result’ is produced, but how/in what way that ‘end result’ is carried out. 

Inefficiency

The things that can allow us to stop and taste, smell and/or see our inefficient ways of operating are in our everyday working practices.

So do you choose to be aware, or are you choosing to carry on acting as if normal, soiling yourself and others around you? Is your distraction, disquiet, dissatisfaction, boredom, rash decision, mis-typed and sent emails, lost sale, won sale, sadness adversely affecting others around you? If so, then this is not what ‘being efficient’ is.

If we want to say to a client that ‘we, our recruitment agency, consultants are responsible (recruiters) that/who act with integrity’ – we must start to consider everyone, whether we are being responsible first for ourselves and in every area of our life (in and outside of work), and then also to all others we may come into contact with. There can be no integrity without responsibility. 

Zofia Sharman holds in-house 121 coaching programmes for Consultants, Managers and Executives focused on building a more efficient and balanced working practice/team. For more information, contact [email protected]