Making Yourself Indispensable by Mark Samuel

Author:Mark Samuel [Samuel, Mark]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781101572092
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2012-04-12T00:00:00+00:00

Ownership of Creating a Safe Work Environment

Nobody wins and everybody loses when someone gets hurt on the job. It is everyone’s responsibility to ensure a safe work environment. First, managers must establish safety as the number one priority. However, this goes beyond lip service, posters, and rule books. This must be reinforced when there is a choice between safety and productivity. Productivity can never be more important than keeping someone out of harm’s way. At the same time, safety behavior must be coached by supervisors on the line and in the field; simply documenting someone’s lack of safety is not a solution. Finally, every employee, regardless of level or position, must look out for every other employee’s safety and be willing to challenge anyone who is not abiding by safety procedures, reminding that person to slow down and act in a fully safe manner. Safety is one area where everyone can gain practice increasing their level of accountability and indispensability—their value to others.

BEWARE: OWNERSHIP TRAPS

Sometimes, when there are several contributors to a situation, people can get sidetracked by measuring their share of ownership. When this happens, measuring ownership can quickly become a roadblock to success. There are three traps to watch for: power, martyrdom, and denial/blame.

The Power Trap

This trap springs up when someone declares ownership in order to take control over others. This is often witnessed when one department leader wants to have control over other departments or to compete against others for resources rather than finding the optimal balance of resources for everyone’s success.

The Martyrdom Trap

This trap springs up when we take all the blame for a situation. The martyrdom trap takes place when we are overresponsible for situations and preventing others involved to learn from their involvement. A director in a manufacturing plant got into the martyrdom trap and as a result, his team became dependent on him for their motivation and solving problems. As a result, internal customers weren’t getting served. Even though the manager demonstrated personal accountability, upper management removed him from his management position, because he wasn’t developing his team.

The Denial/Blame Trap

This one springs up whenever someone uses an ownership “percentage game” to sidestep accountability. Imagine two drivers pulling out of their parking spots at a shopping mall and reaching the same place at the same time resulting in a collision. This accident was caused by the carelessness of both drivers. But suddenly one driver jumps out of his car, points his finger at the other driver, and says she is more to blame than he is. This is a direct attempt to deny ownership.

In each of these traps, ownership is inappropriate, and there’s either too much or not enough. It leaves one or both participants frustrated, angry, or helpless.

Ownership increases your involvement. It gives you the impetus to do your very best. It opens the flow of creativity and allows you to access an intuition and energy that only come if you care, if you are involved. You are getting out of the Victim Loop and using accountability to own more of the outcome than you knew was yours to own.

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