Strengths

Scores | Charts | Descriptions

Responsibility®

People especially talented in the Responsibility theme take psychological ownership of what they say they will do. They are committed to stable values such as honesty and loyalty.

Score Distribution

Shows scores for this strength across all staff.

Users with Responsibility strength

Theme Description

Your Responsibility theme forces you to take psychological ownership for anything you commit to, and whether large or small, you feel emotionally bound to follow it through to completion. Your good name depends on it. If for some reason you cannot deliver, you automatically start to look for ways to make it up to the other person. Apologies are not enough. Excuses and rationalizations are totally unacceptable. You will not quite be able to live with yourself until you have made restitution. This conscientiousness, this near obsession for doing things right, and your impeccable ethics, combine to create your reputation: utterly dependable. When assigning new responsibilities, people will look to you first because they know it will get done. When people come to you for help ‐ and they soon will ‐ you must be selective. Your willingness to volunteer may sometimes lead you to take on more than you should.

Action Items

• Emphasize your sense of Responsibility when job hunting. During interviews, describe your desire to be held fully accountable for the success or failure of projects, your intense dislike of unfinished work, and your need to "make it right" if a commitment is not met.
• Keep volunteering for more responsibility than your experience seems to warrant. You thrive on Responsibility and can deal with it very effectively.
• Align yourself with others who share your sense of Responsibility. You will thrive on the feeling of being surrounded by hands as strong as your own.
• Tell your manager that you work best when given the independence and freedom to follow through on your commitments. Tell your manager that you don't need to check in during a project, just at the end. You can be trusted to get it done.
• Take time to enjoy the completion of your commitments. Responsibility is a source of motivation for you.
• Push yourself to say "no." Because you are instinctively responsible, it might sometimes be very difficult to refuse opportunities. For this reason you must be selective. Ask for more responsibility in only the areas that matter most to you.
• Partner with someone with a strong Discipline or Focus theme. This person can help you stay on track and prevent you from becoming overloaded.

How to Manage a Person Especially Talented in the Responsibility Theme

• This person defines himself by his ability to live up to his commitments. It will be intensely frustrating for him to work around people who don't. As far as possible try to avoid putting him in team situations with lackadaisical teammates.
• He defines himself by the quality of his work. He will resist if you force him to rush his work so much that quality suffers. He dislikes sacrificing quality for speed.
• In discussing his work, talk about its quality first.
• Recognize that he is a self-starter and requires little supervision to ensure that assignments are completed.
• Put him in positions requiring unimpeachable ethics. He will not let you down.
• Periodically ask him what new responsibility he would like to assume. It is motivational for him to volunteer, so give him the opportunity.
• Protect him from taking on too much, particularly if he lacks a theme such as Discipline. Help him see that one more burden may result in his dropping the ball, a notion he will loathe.
• He may well impress you with his ability to deliver time and again. You may be so impressed that you decide to promote him to management. Be careful. He may much prefer to do a job himself than be responsible for someone else's work, in which case he will find management frustrating. Faced with this situation, help him find other ways to grow.