Responsibility = Ownership = Me

re·spon·si·bil·i·ty. The concept of responsibility involves?doing the things we are obligated to do and embracing the consequences of our actions, whether they be favorable or unpleasant. Being responsible entails being trustworthy, fulfilling our pledges, and upholding our obligations and commitments.

There is a sense of responsibility in everything we do. The obvious example is when we are providing Service to someone else, when we owe something to a client or to a peer.

Let’s flip the coin and talk about “Self Service.”

What is your responsibility when you are the client, when you are the customer?? I remember when I was at Target and I ran Infrastructure IT, I came to the realization that the customer isn’t always right, we sometimes we need to, gracefully and professionally help our customer understand what right is.? It’s also important, that as customers, we understand that we are not always right.

I used to get really frustrated when my plane would get delayed (or canceled!), when my order was wrong at a restaurant, or when a shipment that I was counting on was delayed.? Sometimes I would express my frustration to the gate agent, the waiter, or the customer-service agent at the other end of the phoneline.

Then I realized, that none of what was causing me frustration was their fault.

Even if it was their “fault,” almost 100% of the time they didn’t cause the issue on purpose.? What I have found, is that when I’m at the airport and someone is yelling at the gate agent for something he or she has no control over, when I’ve gone over and lent a supportive ear I oftentimes get an upgrade.? When I call a call center and engage the agent in conversation and am friendly, I sometimes get expedited shipping.

I am not advocating that we should do things as a quid pro quo, but I am saying if we treat each other with respect and dignity, we are more likely to be given excellent service and be treated with respect and dignity ourselves.

Over the 35 year course of my professional career (wait, 35 years?!), I have learned a couple of things:

• If I need something more urgently than published expectations, I need make that request up front (oh, and my mother told me to make sure I say please and thank you).
• If something is important, I should check in at some point before the due-date and validate that everything is on track.?
• I’ll even check in early on the actual due date to make sure everything is progressing, so that if there is a delay I can communicate to my clients in advance.
• People do nice things for people who do nice things for them… my mentor used to say that to me when I started at IBM.? What he meant by that was, if you treat people with respect, they are more likely to go the extra mile for you.? If you burn bridges, don’t look for favors.
• Escalate.? This is a tricky one.? It’s okay to escalate.? Escalate if you’ve checked in and it doesn’t look like you’ll get what you need on time.? But escalate in collaboration with your partner so you’re not “telling on” anyone, but so as to determine if we can re-prioritize or re-allocate resources.

Now, those aren’t the only things I’ve learned in 34 years, but they are the ones that I wish someone would have told me earlier as they would have saved me (and others) heartache and frustration.

I have a very fond memory of about five years ago... I was out moving the lawn and a member of our team called me on my cell phone to let me know that he had received a deliverable almost a week late.? After listening to him, I asked: “Why are you calling me a week after it was late, instead of calling me a couple of days before you found out it might be late, when I could help remove obstacles?”

"Oh," he said, "Yeah, I suppose that might have been helpful."

We still laugh about that to this day, and both of us use it as an object lesson.

We are all in this together… again, we are all in this thing together.? This thing we do can be challenging and even frustrating.? If we collaborate with and support each other, we can accomplish so much more together, and maybe even enjoy the ride.

So remember, when you’re the client, that you’re not always right (my wife, rightly, reminds me of that all the time!).