You can tell a lot about a business owner based on how they handle challenges. There's a myth that the people who get results encounter fewer problems. But the truth is that people who get results just respond differently when they encounter those problems. Challenges are inevitable. They're always going to be happening In business, in life, we can't avoid challenges. They come with doing business. And the more you grow, the more Challenges might arise. And yet, so many business owners still aim for perfection and they stress when everything isn't perfect.

They look for the cause of the problem, but often to blame something or someone else versus making a change themselves. That's why today, I want to talk about Radical responsibility. As a business owner, as a leader, you own everything that happens in your business. And yes, I mean Everything. It's all about taking ownership for everything that goes down on your watch. From your team successes to their biggest mistakes, From all of the financial highs to any speed bumps along the way. Raving testimonials from clients, all the way to the most critical feedback, That's all on you. And I don't say that for you to blame yourself.

Remember, ownership isn't the same as blame. Ownership isn't about saying that you are at fault for all of that. It's about acknowledging your part and how you got to this point and taking responsibility to make things better moving forward. You can't fix what you don't own. Your current reality is a result that you helped create. And you have to own that because if you want different results, you have to start by taking radical responsibility and seeing how you help to get where you are. Now, why does this matter? Why do you need to take radical responsibility? Well, first, let's look at empowerment versus Drama. When things don't go as planned in your business, it's easy to point fingers or play the blame game.

It's easy to look at everything that's happening, in quotes, to you from a place of victimhood. But with radical responsibility, the narrative completely changes. It's not about blame. It's not about victimhood. It's about empowerment. By owning the situation, you gain the power to change it. Then there's clarity and decision making. By recognizing that you're at the helm, decisions become more deliberate.

You'll find it easier to make the tough calls because you understand that every decision comes back to you. And when you begin taking radical responsibility, you're gonna see team dynamics Shift. When your team sees you taking responsibility, it creates an environment of trust and transparency. They're more likely to step up. They're more likely to take risks and be proactive. They're gonna know that their leader is right there with them. They're gonna start taking radical responsibility themselves within their roles. So how do you embrace radical responsibility? If you're with me and you're like, yes, I know I need to do this.

Does that look like? Let's look at 7 different ways that you can embrace radical responsibility. So the first is Give yourself a reality check, evaluate your current results and look for where you created them. Ask yourself, how did I contribute to this? Even if it was someone else's mistake, you're going to ask yourself what you did to contribute. Meaning, why did you choose to delegate To that individual, were they ready? Did you train them well enough? Did you hire the right person with the right level of experience? Did you delegate too soon? I could go on and on with questions that you could look at for your part in things as a leader. But, ultimately, I want you to search your own thoughts, feelings, and actions, not outside circumstances. Meaning, not other people, not things that happened. I don't want you to blame those. I want you to see how you created the result that you have And then be careful.

Don't judge or criticize, just get curious about it. And that brings me to the second thing, Reflect, don't react. When challenges arise, I want you to pause and instead of instantly reacting, take a moment to reflect on the situation. Ask yourself, how did we get here and what can I do to influence the next steps? This is a part of the work that you do When you do something that I call clean leading, where you manage your mind before you manage others, where you manage your mind before you Make big decisions. As a leader, you have to take that time to pause and step back versus react in the moment. 3rd, I want you to look at things differently. There's a big difference in viewing something as a problem versus an opportunity. When challenges arise, notice how you view them.

Is there drama attached to it or are you viewing problems neutrally and looking for the opportunities to improve and just viewing it as that. There doesn't have to be a lot of drama around something. That's just so much Wasted time and energy to complain and to sulk or whine or blame. Right? Let's get out of the drama and let's Just simply view it for what it is, an opportunity to improve. And as a leader, how can you influence that? Next, I want you to encourage open dialogue. Foster a culture where your team members can press concerns and ideas openly. Sometimes feedback as a leader is really tough to hear, right? But when you can openly Accept it and look for the truth in it. You can improve and you're going to learn and grow so much faster as a leader, not to mention Your business can grow so much faster when you incorporate feedback from other people, because it's inevitable that you have blind spots as a leader, you can't see everything.

So learn from others, encourage that open dialogue. Plus, by the way, when you model radical responsibility and you encourage open dialogue, your team knows that their insights matter and they're gonna be more proactive in finding and communicating solutions as well. Okay. Next is something we've talked about a lot on the podcast in different episodes, but I want to touch on it here. You need to delegate, not Abdicate. As you scale your business, as you delegate tasks, remember that delegation doesn't mean relinquishing all responsibility. You are still a leader. And that means, yes, trusting your team to execute, but also still owning the outcome.

Ultimately, you still own the results in your business. Next, I want you to leverage boundaries. I don't want you to put yourself in a place of victimhood by complaining about things like how much Work there is to do, how many questions your team is asking, how your clients are contacting you outside of business hours or asking for work outside of scope. You can get into drama around all of that, or you can take responsibility for your schedule by setting and communicating clear working hours, turnaround times, expectations for how to bring questions to you. You can tell your team to bring solutions. You can teach your clients how to ask better questions. And then once you set all of the boundaries, you can follow through on those and really leverage those to make sure that you aren't Stepping outside of the boundaries that you created, you can make sure that if you say that these are the hours you're working, that those are the hours you're working. You have control in the situation.

You don't have to work overtime. You don't have to work constantly. You don't have To have a full schedule, you can give yourself time and space to do the things that you want to do, need to do, and it all comes back to boundaries. And then lastly, continuous learning is something that I want to always encourage you to do as a leader, as a business owner, Take the opportunity to learn from literally every situation, whether it's a success or a challenge, there's always a lesson. So ask the why behind it. Ask not just how did we win, but how did we create that win? And if there are challenges or problems, look for the lessons behind it to solve that moving forward, embrace those lessons and use them to grow. If you are a business owner looking to scale, looking to stop being involved in every aspect of the business. If you wanna get better results from your team, if you wanna free up your time, Take control of your schedule.

Increase not just revenue, but profit. If you wanna help your clients get better results, if you wanna become a better leader, All of that comes back to taking radical responsibility. This is where you should start.