{"id":2005,"date":"2017-11-15T13:13:21","date_gmt":"2017-11-15T07:43:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/innoroo.com\/blog\/?p=2005"},"modified":"2017-11-17T09:33:47","modified_gmt":"2017-11-17T04:03:47","slug":"interview-with-christopher-avery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/innoroo.com\/blog\/2017\/11\/15\/interview-with-christopher-avery\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview with Christopher Avery"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>We hear a lot about leadership and responsibility as separate concepts. We got an opportunity to understand concept of &#8216;<strong>Responsible Leadership<\/strong>&#8216; from Christopher Avery during his interview. In this conversation, we spoke about The Responsibility Process, what is required to be a successful leader, and if leadership can be taught. Let&#8217;s find out the valuable information brought out during the conversation;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Q1. Tell us about how to start with The Responsibility Process\u00ae ? <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Christopher: Take these four steps.\u00a0<img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"2014\" data-permalink=\"http:\/\/innoroo.com\/blog\/2017\/11\/15\/interview-with-christopher-avery\/the-responsibility-process-400x479\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/innoroo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/The-Responsibility-Process-400x479.jpeg?fit=400%2C479\" data-orig-size=\"400,479\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"The Responsibility Process 400&amp;#215;479\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/innoroo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/The-Responsibility-Process-400x479.jpeg?fit=251%2C300\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/innoroo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/The-Responsibility-Process-400x479.jpeg?fit=400%2C479\" class=\"alignright wp-image-2014 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/innoroo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/The-Responsibility-Process-400x479.jpeg?resize=251%2C300\" alt=\"\" width=\"251\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/innoroo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/The-Responsibility-Process-400x479.jpeg?resize=251%2C300 251w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/innoroo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/The-Responsibility-Process-400x479.jpeg?resize=400%2C479 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 251px) 100vw, 251px\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">1.\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ask yourself \u201cHow committed am I to recognise and solve problems faster, be free and powerful in life, and be a better leader of self and others?\u201d If you are truly committed go on to step 2.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>2. Ask yourself \u201cDo I believe The Responsibility Process is active in me, controlling my perceptions of cause and effect for my life?\u201d If you believe it, go on to step 3.<\/p>\n<p>3. Begin our most important lifelong practice: Noticing.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Notice when you are in Lay Blame.<br \/>\n<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Notice when you are in Justify. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Notice when you are in Shame. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Notice when you are in Obligation. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Notice when you are in Quit. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Notice when you are in Responsibility. <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you are committed to unlocking your natural ability to live and lead with power, then you will catch yourself blaming (<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">it\u2019s the manager\u2019s fault we can\u2019t do that<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">) and stop. Then you will catch yourself justifying (<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">we don\u2019t have enough time\/resources\/budget<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">) and stop. Then you will catch yourself blaming yourself (Shame &#8211; <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I screwed up and now we have a big problem<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">) and stop. Then you will catch yourself feeling trapped in Obligation (<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I have to go to that dumb meeting<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">) and stop. Only taking Responsibility (<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I own my power and ability to create, choose, and attract my reality<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">) remains.<\/span><\/p>\n<ol start=\"4\">\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Commit to applying The Responsibility Process only to yourself as a self-leadership tool. When applied to others it is usually used to Lay Blame.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Finally, consider finding a partner or forming a support group to study The Responsibility Process together. Our old habits of mind are so strong that trying to practice Responsibility by yourself can be like trying to quit smoking in a house full of smokers.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Q2. Can leadership be taught? <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Christopher: Yes, but it doesn\u2019t mean that the teaching is right or that leadership is learned. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So allow me to instead answer this question: \u201cCan leadership be learned?\u201d Yes, absolutely. As I frequently say (and write about in my new book <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.in\/Responsibility-Process-Unlocking-Natural-Ability\/dp\/099774720X\/\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Responsibility Process<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Unlocking Your Natural Ability to Live and Lead with Power\u00a0<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Create Choose and Attract<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">) leaders make themselves by stepping up to and responding effectively to increasing challenges. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Leadership means taking responsibility for some problem or opportunity, and then &#8212; assuming the task is larger than one person can do &#8212; attracting others to join you. So if you apply The Responsibility Process as a self-leadership tool, you will grow rapidly to be able to face and overcome ever greater challenges. And if you are pointing yourself at valuable problems or opportunities, and operating from Responsibility, then you should not be surprised to see followers wanting to join you.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Q3. Freedom, choice and power &#8211; are they anywhere associated with being a leader?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Christopher: I assume you are asking about my claim in my book <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Responsibility Process<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and other places that leadership is responsibility and that practicing responsibility means experiencing Freedom, Choice, and Power. Of course they are associated with leadership. If you are trapped, there is nowhere to lead to. You are convinced. If you have no choice, there is no leadership to be demonstrated. If you have no power, you don\u2019t recognize your own ability to be resourceful, hence no leadership.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is also what you study with me in The Responsibility Process Leading and Coaching workshop.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Q4. How can Teamwork be an individual skill? Please explain.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Christopher: I wrote <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Teamwork Is An Individual Skill: Getting Your Done When Sharing Responsibility<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for people who want to be done with bad teams. Most people think that they are powerless to affect the quality and productivity of their teams, and that someone else (the manager, coach, team lead, etc.) is <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">responsible<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for the quality of their experience at work.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Fortunately<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, there is an alternative belief, that you are creating your experience in life and work, good or bad. That means if you want to experience great teams and relationships at work, you can take responsibility for doing so.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The first step is to assume 100% responsibility for the quality and productivity of your relationships at work, all of them, even the awful ones (indeed, that\u2019s the only way you will change them).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Next, be &#8212; or become &#8212; worthy of being a great teammate:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Do you seek alignment with others on higher goals? <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Do you see them as a human being as opposed to a role? (Do you know what inspires them at work beyond a paycheck? And do you support them in that?)<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Do you make and keep agreements that build trust? <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These are powerful self-leadership behaviors you can engage in everywhere.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Then, when you are a person who deserves to be on a great team you can intend, expect (maybe even demand of yourself) to be on a great team.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When you expect to be on great teams, then you will learn what it takes to give a group of people a chance to step up to shared responsibility together:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The feeling of being in the same boat together by being aligned to a single overarching objective, goal, or purpose.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Managing peer motivation first by surfacing individual motivation (beyond a paycheck) so people see they probably are not a threat to each other, then by <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">identifying<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> the least-invested-coworker. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Any team performs to the level of their least-invested-coworker, so you want to discover this early and think about how to help them find greater inspiration and psychological reward in your team.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Building trust specifically by making and keeping team agreements. Start small and build to larger and larger agreements that everyone has confidence now in keeping.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is the basic concept of teamwork as an individual skillset. And it is what I write about in <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Teamwork Is An Individual Skill<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and teach in The <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Responsibility<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Process Powerful Teams workshop.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Q5. What is required to be a successful leader along with risk taking appetite?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Christopher: Leadership is 95% self-leadership. If you are doing that well you should not be surprised to see people following you.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So the main requirement is taking 100% responsibility for a problem, situation, or opportunity. That means FEELING it. Being INSPIRED by it. Feeling PULLED to it. Naturally SAYING NO to distractions. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is a natural state of mind, sometimes called passion, \u00a0or vision, calling, or purpose. Taking responsibility isn\u2019t something you can make yourself do (that\u2019s called Obligation). You allow yourself to own your power and ability to create, choose, and attract your reality.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If your problem, situation, or opportunity is bigger than you, then you get to figure out how to attract other people to join you. The larger your vision or purpose is, the more people you will <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">naturally<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> attract to assist you. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here\u2019s a short example from my own life. No one assigned me to promote The Responsibility Process. At first, I just wanted to learn, practice, and master it. Then I realized the world could use this. So I created a purpose\u2014to change the conversation everywhere about what responsibility is and isn\u2019t. And I developed a vision\u2014that one day we could see The Responsibility Process poster hanging in every office, classroom, home, and church in the world. And I went to work experimenting with speaking, writing, and leadership development. I have a very small company, but The Responsibility Process now enjoys a worldwide tribe of followers and fellow practitioners and teachers. If I <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">disappeared<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">tomorrow<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, I think there may be enough critical mass for the purpose to continue. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Q6. What is the difference between a coach and consultant?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Christopher: I think that\u2019s a question for others to opine about.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Q7. What is the one question you think I haven\u2019t asked you, and should have asked?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Christopher: Do I love and believe in you, and want you to realize the life, work, and relationships of your dreams? <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Absolutely I do.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"2007\" data-permalink=\"http:\/\/innoroo.com\/blog\/2017\/11\/15\/interview-with-christopher-avery\/chirstoper-287x300\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/innoroo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/chirstoper-287X300.png?fit=287%2C300\" data-orig-size=\"287,300\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"chirstoper 287X300\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/innoroo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/chirstoper-287X300.png?fit=287%2C300\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/innoroo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/chirstoper-287X300.png?fit=287%2C300\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-2007 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/innoroo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/chirstoper-287X300.png?resize=150%2C150\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/innoroo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/chirstoper-287X300.png?resize=150%2C150 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/innoroo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/chirstoper-287X300.png?resize=60%2C60 60w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/>Christopher Avery &#8220;The Responsibility Process guy&#8221; is a reformed management consultant. After a decade helping corporations help smart, ambitious professionals find ways to cope with lives they don&#8217;t want and think they can&#8217;t change, Christopher realized coping skills are overrated. A better skill is knowing how to apply your innate leadership ability to face and overcome any challenge. Today, he supports leaders and leadership teams in generating newfound freedom, choice, and power for themselves and others. How? By advancing the world&#8217;s first proven how-to approach for understanding, teaching, and taking personal responsibility.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We hear a lot about leadership and responsibility as separate concepts. We got an opportunity to understand concept of &#8216;Responsible Leadership&#8216; from Christopher Avery during his interview. In this conversation, we spoke about The Responsibility Process, what is required to be a successful leader, and if leadership can be taught. Let&#8217;s find out the valuable [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2006,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9],"tags":[17,106,25,18,19,116,264,265],"class_list":["post-2005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interview-series","tag-agile","tag-blog","tag-good-thoughts","tag-innoroo","tag-innovation-roots","tag-leadership","tag-responsibility","tag-responsible-leadership"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/innoroo.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/chirstoper-banner-01.png?fit=3125%2C1709","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8Rui8-wl","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/innoroo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/innoroo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/innoroo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/innoroo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/innoroo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2005"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/innoroo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2005\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13063,"href":"http:\/\/innoroo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2005\/revisions\/13063"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/innoroo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/innoroo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/innoroo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/innoroo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}