What a great quote. This is one of the great life changing "Laws of the Universe."
It is true just like gravity is real.
Although, I think a truer statement would be that with "GREAT responsibility comes GREAT power."
It is true in any organization I have worked with, the person who takes on the most responsibility is also the person with the greatest influence in the company. This does not necessarily mean that it is the person with the greatest position or authority. It means the person with the most influence is always the person who takes the greatest responsibility.
It is a fact of life. Test it for yourself. Think of an organization you really know well. Not one you read about in Fortune Magazine, but one you really know the players in.
- Who owned the least amount of responsibility?
- Who owned the most responsibility?
- Who had the most overall influence and power?
- Who had the least influence and power?
I hope I made my case. But, just in case, let's test it again.
Everyday in life, we have the option to either be a Victim or to take responsibility for our lives, for our actions, for our families, for our organization, for our country.
The more we move toward the Victim mentality the more power and influence we lose. The more we move towards responsibility the more influence and power we gain.
Application:
Scenario: You are at work and you are getting chewed out because your department dropped the ball somewhere. You have a choice to take ownership of that error or "pass the buck" and throw your team "under the bus." It is a simple equation, if you take responsibility you will gain influence, if you pass the buck you will lose influence. If you "pass the buck," it becomes clear that you are no longer the person your boss needs to talk with to get better results in the future, because you demonstrate it is "out of your hands." Therefore, you lose the influence to make things better.
When all the employees in an organization understand this, then everyone is fighting to take ownership and responsibility, the "buck" is no longer passed, and everyone works together to find solutions and take ownership of the success of the organization. This is a powerful organization.
You can apply this same situation to your life, your family, or our political climate in America. If we play the victim, we lose power and influence and transfer responsibility and therefore, influence to someone else.
So which one will you be? You have a choice take ownership, or give up your influence and power. It's that simple. So Uncle Ben is correct, but maybe he should have said "If you want POWER than take RESPONSIBILITY."
- Jon Bohm
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