Taking Radical Responsibility

What it Means to be a Radically Responsible Leader

At Human Leaders, we define Radical Responsibility as: 

The complete ownership of self including thoughts, behaviours and resulting outcomes. 

This core pillar of Human Leadership is the true final piece of integrating who we are with how we show up in Leadership. Radical Responsibility has three core components:

Personality Accountability is 

Holding ourselves accountable for the outcomes in our lives as a result of our thoughts, actions, behaviours and beliefs.

Personal Accountability involves taking full and complete ownership over yourself, your thoughts, actions and decisions. It also gives understanding that we're the co-creator of every problem and therefore every potential solution in our lives and leadership. Personally accountable Leaders hold themselves accountable, they do not blame others or 'pass the buck' and they actively work with teams towards solutions that all can feel a part of.

Human Leaders who're personally accountable understand that through action or inaction they're part of every problem and solution both in life and leadership. They're able to tune into internal narratives of blame and externalisation and take ownership of these by shifting the focus to what they can do to improve or resolve situations. 

This also requires a level of self-compassion as not always do things go smoothly in life and Leadership, and personal accountability can sometimes leave Leaders feeling guiltily, shameful and regretful. Taking a heart-centred approach to themselves helps them to take ownership with compassion and in turn show up for their employees in the same way.

Wellbeing is:

Taking care of ourselves as a radical act in effective Leadership. This includes our sleep, stress, nutrition, physical activity & spiritual practices.

Wellbeing where we see the integration of our human self and how we lead. As how we take care of ourselves is inextricably linked to our capacity to lead effectively, Human Leaders take radical responsibility for their personal wellbeing and understand this is a crucial part of their success. Wellbeing includes how they care for themselves through stress management, nutritional eating, physical exercise, sleep and sleep hygiene and personal relaxation and mindfulness practices.

Human Leaders must understand the intersection between personal habits and the impact these have on their Leadership ability. As integrated beings we can not simply show up as our best in Leadership if our personal wellbeing doesn't support this. Cultivating positive habits around sleep, nutrition, movement, rest, connection and play promote personal wellbeing. Leaders who feel the benefits of personal wellbeing for themselves are also more effective at imbuing wellbeing into Leadership behaviours and processes, creating the space and leading by example for employees to do the same.

Evolution is:

The choice to adopt a learning mindset and stay open and curious to updating our knowledge is key to personal and professional evolution. 

Through being a constantly evolving Leader, Human Leaders are able to adopt a beginners mindset to constantly seek and update their knowledge rather than conforming and staying comfortable in the status quo. This requires Human Leaders to become comfortable with the uncomfortable and accept that life and leadership is an ongoing personal and professional growth journey. Leaning into 'Failure' is a way to learn and through detaching from outcomes leaders can be continuously looking for how to learn and evolve.

Evolution is effectively the innate mindset of a Human Leader, it's the innate knowing that as a human being we're continuously and constantly evolving ourselves. When we're able to apply this to our Leadership style it creates space for growth, rethinking and relearning and is the birthplace for innovative teams and learning organisations.