Leading Through What You Didn't Create - Responsibility
"We don't have to cause something to have a say in what happens next."— James McPartland
Most of us hear the word responsibility and brace for blame. Someone has to own the missed number, the stalled launch, the meeting that went sideways. So when something goes wrong, our first question is usually whose fault is this?
If the answer is "not mine," we tend to step back. We didn't cause it, so we assume it isn't ours to deal with.
There's a more useful way to see it. We don't have to be responsible for something to be responsible to it.
Being responsible for a situation means we caused it. Being responsible to a situation means we choose how we show up for it, regardless of who caused it. The first is about the past. The second is about what we do next, and it's available to us every time.
A team member misses a deadline. We didn't miss it. But we can still be responsible to it.
We can reach out and ask what got in the way. We can help them let the people affected know, figure out what needs cleaning up, and set a new date they can keep. We stay in the conversation and help it move forward, and none of that means taking the blame.
A storm tears through our town. Nobody caused it. Every one of us can still be responsible to it.
We can volunteer, check on the neighbor who lives alone, donate what we're able to. Or we can complain about the cleanup crews and the news coverage. Both are responses. Only one of them helps anybody.
When we're responsible to a situation, four options open up:
Complain about it.
Work to change it.
Accept it.
Leave it.
"That's not my fault" quietly picks the first one for us. It feels like a neutral statement, and it usually ends with us complaining while nothing moves.
Seen this way, responsibility is a gift and a privilege. It hands the choice back to us, even in situations we'd never have chosen.
People hear what they see. Our teams pay close attention to how we respond to problems we didn't create. A leader who says "that's on them" teaches the team to protect themselves. A leader who reaches out, helps clean up, and moves things forward teaches them that ownership is how this team works.
So think of one thing on your plate this week that isn't your fault.
What would it look like to be responsible to it?
Mac
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