When I first joined the financial organisation I now work for, I did not know managing a project also entailed being accountable for setbacks and errors made by others.
Part of my job is managing the production of a monthly publication and sending it to our clients at the beginning of every month. The final process before material distribution is ensuring sign-offs and approval by our legal and marketing departments.
At the beginning of my role I would forward a "soft" copy of the publication to both departments for sign-offs. Because of their busy schedules and loaded email inboxes, they sometimes delayed granting approvals and that affected the distribution date of the material to clients by a couple of days.
Being a punctual person,this irritated me and I discussed it with my manager.
His response was an eye-opener and one that drastically changed my perception of responsibility at work. He told me any delay to the publication distribution was my responsibility and my fault as I ran that project and I should not point the finger at anyone, or any external factor, for that matter.
He said if I did not receive a quick response from both departments via email, then I should call them, remind their secretaries and pop into their offices until I got what I needed. "Be a shark" was what he always said to me.
I took his advice and boy was he right. I saved time and achieved better outcomes.
It was not me alone who faced such circumstances. One of the most common momentum killers I have seen in my professional life and that of my colleagues is our tendency to wait for someone else to act, assume the blame or take charge. But often no help comes and we end up having wasted our time when we could have found a solution and kept the show running.
According to Nathaniel Branden, a pioneering lecturer on self-esteem and its impact on work, assuming responsibility is the first step to developing a healthy sense of self-esteem.
Individuals can grasp the concept of this only when they realise help is not coming and they should take charge or will miss the boat. Just thinking about the concept is liberating. Help might never come and you should take action before it is too late.
In a work setting this is important, as time is money, especially when you work in the financial sector.
Believing you should take responsibility and are accountable for the quality of your project does not mean you are being bossy towards others. It also does not always mean you have authority and should not involve your colleagues. What it does mean is you devote your full time and effort to ensure quality results and take action when necessary.
Adopting this mindset is important for young leaders. Our generation - Generation Y or the Millennials - are privileged to be history's most educated group. Many of us were brought up under parents who kept a close watch on us to ensure our needs were catered to and they mainly handled the responsibility of every aspect of our lives.
But what is interesting to read is, because of that, many managers perceive employees of this generation to be constantly needing guidance and monitoring, which may prevent them from being allowed to take control and assume full responsibility.
What young leaders need to understand is, many times, help might not be coming.
They also need to differentiate between a fault and responsibility. Often, many of us have to be in charge of fixing situations that are not our fault.
Blame wastes time when, instead, we could focus on corrective action.
It is only when we assume full responsibility that we can unleash our minds to be innovative and drive great results.
In a world where problems become more complex and time flies by in the blink of an eye, innovative solutions will come only from those who act as if help will never come.
As Abraham Lincoln once said: "Things may come to those who wait but only the things left by those who hustle."
Manar Al Hinai is an award-winning Emirati fashion designer and writer. Follow her on Twitter: @manar_alhinai
