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June 27, 2005
TIP #31 - Be the Somebody
I ran across this poem recently in Ideabank. I thought it captured what too often happens in the workplace. Everybody is waiting for somebody to do something.
People who are winning at working don't wait. They're the somebody. They do what needs to be done. If you want to be winning at working, stop waiting; start doing.
A POEM ABOUT RESPONSIBILITY
BY Charles Osgood
There was a most important job that needed to be done,
And no reason not to do it, there was absolutely none.
But in vital matters such as this, the thing you have to ask
Is who exactly will it be who'll carry out the task.
Anybody could have told you that Everybody knew
That this was something Somebody would surely have to do.
Nobody was unwilling. Anybody had the ability.
But Nobody believed that it was his responsibility.
It seemed to be a job that Anybody could have done.
If anybody thought he was supposed to be the one.
But since Everybody recognized that Anybody could
Everybody took for granted that Somebody would.
But Nobody told Anybody that we are aware of,
That he would be in charge of seeing it was taken care of.
And Nobody took it on himself to follow through,
And do what Everybody thought that Somebody would do.
When what Everybody needed so did not get done at all,
Everybody was complaining that Somebody dropped the ball.
Anybody then could see it was an awful crying shame,
And Everybody looked around for Somebody to blame.
Somebody should have done the job
And Everybody should have,
But in the end Nobody did
What Anybody could have.
Read Nan's current biweekly Winning at Working column called: Find Those People.
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ALSO, check out Nan's montly life relections column, In the Scheme of Things.
Posted by Nan Russell at June 27, 2005 11:50 AM
