Put your OAR in and get out of BED

Do you own challenges or sidestep them?

Date: 18th October 2019
Speaker: Tim Brooker
Business: Beyond Numbers
Topic: Accountancy

“OAR and BED are two sets of attitudes that mark successful and unsuccessful businesspeople apart.

OAR

Victors in business exhibit the following behaviours – they play ‘above the line’:

Ownership – not just in a legalistic sense but also in a holistic sense covering all aspects of an organisation, not just financial aspects; e.g. employee welfare, commitment to achieving missions & goals…etc.

Accountability – a willingness to be held answerable for one’s actions (note this is explicit versus ownership which is intrinsic).

Responsibility – being in charge of a task or event (note that responsibility can be shared, unlike accountability)

BED

However, victims in business tend to react as follows – they play ‘below the line’:

Blame – they blame somebody else.

Excuse – they make excuses for their actions.

Denial – they deny there is a problem in the first place.

Conclusion

Ownership, Accountability and Responsibility are ‘above the line’ attributes – they relate to people who are willing take control of their lives and their actions.

On the other hand, Blame, Excuse and Denial are ‘below the line’ attributes – they are exhibited by people who devolve responsibility and allow external factors to determine their success.

Hence, for those business people who live their life ‘above the line’, success becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy – the more they succeed, the more they become used to success and the more their actions create success.

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