RESPONSIBILITY

Responsibility
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
You are dependable, and people know it. They count on you when something important is on the line.



You don’t want to let people down, and you will work very hard to fulfill all your responsibilities and keep your word.



Because you “come through” for people, word spreads — and more and more people come to you.



With the responsibility you feel to the people who come to you and with the demands that each of them brings, you might feel overwhelmed and under pressure to perform.



You may work best when given the opportunity to follow through on your commitments as you see fit. When you work on class projects, tell the group members that you don’t need to check in during a project, just at the end. You can be trusted to get it done.



Working with others who also have powerful Responsibility talents is satisfying to you. Clarify your roles in advance and decide who will take ownership of what tasks, so that you don’t step on each other’s toes.



You have an instinctive sense of how to do things right. To best understand you and your talents, others might need you to explain your choices and how you know what’s right.



People with exceptional Responsibility talents like to know they have met others’ expectations. Tell your professors that their feedback about the quality of your work is important to you.



You naturally take ownership of everything you are involved in. Be sure to share some of that responsibility with others so they can grow and develop as well.



Ask your professors for the objectives of an assignment, then figure out how to fully meet them — or even go above and beyond expectations.



Learn to manage your Responsibility talents by deciding what you will stop doing if you take on a new responsibility. With your high level of psychological ownership, you may take on more than you can handle unless you are able to keep the mental image of a balanced scale in your mind.



Prepare for the term by listing the dates of all tests, projects, and papers.



Ask professors and successful students to show you what an “A” paper and an “A” essay look like.



Think about what it would mean to be a truly responsible student. Work toward that standard in a progressive manner, taking one step at a time.



Strive to always work ahead. Read ahead and work problems before the professor has presented them in class.



Discover what “doing it right” means to each of your professors.



Schedule specific study times for each of your classes, and assume full responsibility for investing the necessary time, talents, and effort.



As you do your reading assignments, highlight the key vocabulary words, main ideas, and characters.



Make choices about class assignments as soon as possible.



Choose friends you trust.



Find a mentor.



Consider having a circle of friends who are older than you.



Choose core classes or those required by your major first.



Select professors you trust.



Opt for courses in which you have choices to make about your learning.



Wisely consider how much time you can devote to clubs and activities.



Run for an office only if you have the capacity to fulfill it as you would like.



Select organizations that stand for the same values you do.



Make an appointment with a career counselor to talk about how to begin the career planning process. The sense of psychological ownership this step creates will engage you in the process and energize you to follow through.



Interview people who are currently in jobs that interest you. Shadow them to see what they really do day in and day out.



You often take the initiative, and you always follow through, so you do not need a lot of supervision. Select work in which you can be given more and more responsibility as you progressively achieve.



Building trusting relationships with others is important to you, so choose environments in which you can surround yourself with dependable, trustworthy people. When selecting a team to join, be sure the others members are known for pulling their weight.



Managing others could be a frustrating experience for you, as their standards of responsibility might not match your own.



You will be most productive in environments where you can fully follow through on the commitments you make to others.



Choose a work environment that focuses on outcomes rather than processes. Talk to law clerks, librarians, and executive assistants to see what they find rewarding about their work.