“We’re like a boat in a harbour,” says Joce Goto, a panellist on this week’s episode of Helping Hands. “There’s this wake behind us, and what we do has ripple effects into the people around us … You need to have an awareness of what’s behind you as you take steps forward.”
Joce is the Chief Operations Officer at Charitabl. and is joined by Mark Jones, Chief Storyteller at the ImpactInstitute; and Max Jegananathan, former advisor to the Federal Government, to discuss what it means to take responsibility for our actions.
Joce shares this analogy to help illustrate that our actions and choices have an impact on those around us. Her definition of being responsible on an individual, personal level means conducting ourselves with integrity, she says. We want to aim to be the same person in every circumstance, no matter what pressures or stress we face.
“I try to live by the adage of consistency in character. What does it look like for me to be the same person here … when I’m at home with my three-year-old, when I’m at work or with my team, or from a stage? How do I remain the same person throughout it all?”
This same attitude to responsibility is increasingly finding a place of importance in business too, Mark says, simply because it’s not sustainable to pretend to be something you’re not.
Mark clarifies that today, business leaders can expect to be held accountable by their staff and clients for their conduct, for the values their organisation stands for and for their business to be about more than merely satisfying the minimum moral and legal standards to avoid getting into trouble.
If business leaders aren’t free to be themselves, Mark says, it creates a culture of mistrust and a lack of authenticity.
“It’s really key that when you want to bring people with you on a journey, they want to follow real people, and so, we’re starting to see more leaders realising they can be themselves … that’s how you get better retention of staff and more customers who like you.”
In politics and in any public arena, Max says that taking responsibility for one’s actions is perhaps an even rarer but infinitely valuable jewel to be treasured.
Things are never as black and white as they first may seem and blame for mistakes made can hardly be attributed to just one cause or one individual’s fault.
Whatever one’s part might be, Max says, whether it’s 5% or 50% of what went wrong, taking 100% responsibility for your part is the key to being a person of integrity.
“What you see far too often … particularly in public communication and public leadership is people being sorry for the offence they’ve caused, or for how someone feels, or for the impact on someone, as opposed to just being sorry that they said or did something – full stop. That complete sense of ownership over something that’s gone wrong … when you see that, people react and respond in a much more accepting way.”
See the TAKING RESPONSIBILITY FOR OUR ACTIONS discussion and the full catalogue of Helping Hands panels at helpinghands.tv. Catch up on full episodes of Helping Hands on 9NOW.
