"IF I Offended Anyone..." Is NOT Taking Responsibility

by Patrick T. Malone
(Atlanta)

Personal responsibility is one of the cornerstones to real leadership, if you define leadership as the ability to gain willing followers to a given course of action.

The "faux leaders" Paul describes above actually have no willing followers. The global crisis of leadership could be traced back to a inability to accept personal responsibility.

Those who apologize by saying "IF I offended anyone..." have already absolved themselves from any responsibility for the transgression.

Or what about those who blame some childhood trauma for their aberrant behavior as an adult. We have become a society looking for someone to blame and thereby relieve ourselves of any responsibility - unless the outcome was good and then we become the sole reason the sun came up today.

Patrick T. Malone
Senior Partner, Speaker & Author, The PAR Group
http://www.thepargroup.com/book.html

SUZIE'S COMMENTS...

Patrick,

It's like when someone says, "In all due respect..." it means they are getting ready to say and do something that is not going to be with respect.

Willing followers... a tribe of people who want to hang with you, who choose to. Yes. That's the game IMO, too.

Big part of that is to be able to build trust - and agree it all goes back to "taking responsibility."


Thanks Patrick!
All the Best, and More!
Suzie