I attended a day-long seminar “Overcoming Challenges in Today’s Times” conducted by the big man, Stephen Covey himself, at Hyderabad, India early this year. At the end of it, when Steven asked the participants if they have any doubts, a man got up and shared his concern that though he is very proactive, his boss isn’t and doesn’t allow him to be! Steven did not make it easy for him. He asked him a few questions and left him at that. Probably Steven wanted the man to be proactive and find his own answers.

As my understanding goes, being proactive means being able to take responsibility for one’s behavior, whatever it may be – positive or negative. The underlying rationale is only when you take responsibility for your actions you will learn from them and use them to your advantage. Personally, whenever I am proactive, in addition to learning, I find myself energized and free.

“Proactivity – First Habit of Highly Effective People”

Coming back to the man at the seminar, who represents all of us, one time or the other, his question belongs to all of us – can we be proactive among people who are not at all proactive? How can we take initiative when our boss doesn’t allow us to? How long will we take responsibility of our behavior and actions when others don’t take responsibility for theirs?

I will be very interested to hear your comments.

RK Prasad

CEO

Basically, I am a Flash Action Script programmer in Custom courseware department. As my responsibilities are increased I became Project Manager. I learnt a lot of Project Management skills in CommLab India. Initially I used to get tensed to handle multiple projects, because I used to take complete responsibility of all the projects and I was not able to meet the deadlines I used to work late nights with the team to complete the projects.

On those days I am not able to find out the reason for these problems. One day I attended Stephen R. Covey’s training program on “Overcoming Challenges in Today’s Times” in which he showed some video clips on trust. Also I read about trust in the book “The Seven habits of Highly Effective People” written by him. I learnt that we need to trust our team first and give them responsibility. After this training I worked on this concept and realize that I was not giving responsibility to my team and taking full burden of the project upon me, because I am not trusting my team.

Then I started experimenting on the concept with my team members. I selected one member in my new project with whom nobody wants to work, because his performance is very low. Before starting the project I gave complete details of the project to review and then I personally explained everything about the project and his role and I said,

“This is your project and complete responsibility is yours. You are the boss of your work and I will not take any responsibility on this project, but I am always available to help you. You can ask me any number of times for the clarifications or any other suggestions. But I will not take any responsibility of the project.”

Then I asked him to give the project plan which he submitted. I took confirmation two times about the deadline. He promised me that he will submit the project on time. I helped him whenever he asked me. He became very serious on his work and taking full responsibility of the project. Everyday he updated me the status without asking. Unfortunately, after this hard work he didn’t complete the work on time. He felt bad about his performance and understood his area of concerns. Then he requested me for some more time to complete the project which I agreed. This time he doubled his effort and concentrated on the areas of concerns and completed the project. After completion of the project he felt great in handling the project independently for the first time and also he enjoyed working with me. I am also happy because I didn’t have complete responsibility. I just kept tabs on the project status. I hope next time onwards he will be more responsible in his work.

We should first keep trust on our team and start giving responsibilities. Also this applies to the team member to ask and take responsibilities. One will feel great if any responsibility is given. It is very difficult to get job done with others if that person does not feel any responsibility. If we give total responsibility then that person will find better ways to handle the job, sometimes better than us. This concept helped me to handle multiple projects without stress.

Don’t put pressure everyday to your team members which does not give any motivation, just keep trust on your team and give them the responsibility. Responsibility of work will makes them feel great and motivates them to work.

Keep Trust on Your Team!

Abdul Razzaque Hussain
Project Manager