I've been doing a lot of thinking about this topic this week. Early on in my business career I remember talking to my husband about why my business was a little bit slow and not getting the results I would have liked. I remember saying to him that I 'accepted responsibility' for my lack of results because I had not taken certain actions.
I knew why I was not getting results, and I thought that making that statement that I accepted the responsibility for it was enough. But, do you know what? It wasn't enough. What I didn't really fully understand was that I was only just accepting blame - I was the problem, and I accepted responsibility (blame) for the lack of results.
But is that really what taking responsibility is about? Well, no! It is so very much more.
Taking Responsibility means not just saying "it's my fault" when things are going wrong, but it means being responsible for getting into action and making things go the right way.
Someone who accepts responsibility for their business success will do what it takes, will put in the hard yards. They will be a person that makes things happen and won't stop until they do. It has a lot more to do with our level of commitment. I heard a quote the other day: "When you are involved you do what is convenient, but when you are COMMITTED, you do what is REQUIRED!" In an employer/employee relationship it often falls to the manager/employee to accept this kind of responsibility. They keep a watch on outputs, on sales, on efficiency, and if things are not quite right, they implement changes. An employee, while still striving to take a personal responsibility for their own work, do not have this overall responsibility on their shoulders.
So, for someone moving from an employee to owning and running their own business, this is the kind of transition in thinking that is necessary to be successful. There is much to be learned when we change from an employee mindset to a business owner mindset. But it is not that overwhelming that it would be impossible to achieve for anyone who put their mind to it.
There are statistics from the Harvard University that says our success in life is directly proportionate to the people in our circle of influence. This is where it is important to mix with like-minded successful business people, entrepreneurs, leaders in the industry. Mix with these kind of people as often as possible.
Where can you do this? Find some online groups that match up with the kind of qualities you want to align yourself with. There are often groups in your local community that you could become involved with that can help you grow.
In my business, we have training calls almost every day of the week where we get to hear from other successful leaders and business owners. We also have several conferences a year - a 1 day, a 3 day and a 5 day conference where we get to hang out with other like-minded people in a social aspect, as well as hear from some well-known empowering speakers that can really change how you think. Personally, I have found this absolutely life-changing. Our first time overseas was in 2009 when we attended on of our 5 day conferences in Hawaii. We had an amazing time, loved seeing the sights, but got so much value from attending this conference. As a business owner, it was a perfect occasion to network, pick the brains of other leaders, to really open my mind to just learn and absorb everything to assist with my success, not only as a business owner, but to grow as a person. I cannot stress enough just how important these kind of events are to your business.
These are only just a few steps that I must take responsibility for in my own business. You could sit down with a pen and paper and write down what are your essentials - what are the things that MUST be done in your business? What are the things that you are not getting done right now that should be done? Write a contingency plan - what do you do if you miss doing something that must get done.
This is not about beating yourself up when you can't get something done on a particular day - things happen, and that's why you have your own business, so you can have that work/life balance you always dreamed of having. You wake up of a morning and the kids are sick, or something comes up that cannot be avoided, so the schedule goes out the window. That's ok! You deal with that day, and then pick up the next day with your schedule. But...taking responsibility here means working hard to make sure you catch up on what you missed.
When it all boils down to it, our success is in our own hands. If we don't have the success we would like, we can't blame anyone else - not our family, our friends, the neighbour down the street, our circumstances, the global financial state, or whatever. It is all about OUR actions - what we DO, and who we are BEING.
Are we being a person of ACTION and a person of SUCCESS!
