“Talent-Plus” Responsibility

Excerpted from John Maxwell’s “Talent is Never Enough”

The following steps will help you become a talent-plus person when it comes to responsibility:

1. Start wherever you are. If being responsible has not been one of your strengths, then start small.
2. Choose your friends wisely. If you have started your journey on the road to responsibility, make sure you have the right traveling companions.
3. Stop blaming others. If you want to be successful and maximize your talent as a talent-plus person, take responsibility for your own life.
4. Learn responsibility’s major lessons. There are four core lessons: Recognize that gaining success means practicing self-discipline; finish what you start; know when others are depending on you; and don’t expect others to step in for you.
5. Make tough decisions and stand by them. When he was mayor of New York City, Rudy Giuliani kept a sign on his desk that stated, “I’m responsible.” In his book Leadership, Giuliani wrote, “Nothing builds confidence in a leader more than the willingness to take responsibility for what happens during his watch.”
6. Live beyond yourself. This is the idea of taking responsibility beyond yourself by serving others. Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986, spent the years after his time in Nazi concentration camps giving back to others.

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