【推荐1】People duck responsibility for reasons ranging from simple laziness or a fear of failure, through to a sense of feeling frightened by the scale of a problem or a situation. Whatever the reason, if people fail to take responsibility, they’ll fail in their jobs, they’ll fail their teams, and they’ll fail to grow as individuals. All of this makes it important to address the issue.

Signs of not being responsible

There are several signs to watch out for. These include:

Lacking interest in their work, and in the well-being of the team

Blaming others for mistakes and failures

Missing deadlines

Avoiding challenging tasks and projects, and not taking risks

Regularly complaining about unfair treatment by team leaders and members and engaging in self-pity

Avoiding being dependent on others for work, advice and instructions

Lacking trust in team members and leaders

Ways to encourage responsibility

Start by talking

Your first step is to talk to the individuals concerned. Are there circumstances that are contributing to the situation, or problems that you can deal with?

Communicate roles, responsibilities and objectives

Your people need to know clearly what their roles and responsibilities are. Ensure that you have an up-to-date job description for each team member, and be as detailed as possible about every responsibility that they have.

Re-engage people

Your people will be more engaged if their work is supported with their values. Talk to them to find out what they are. Then, illustrate how their daily tasks and responsibilities go with those values.

Give plenty of praise

Finally, be sure to give your people plenty of praise when they do take responsibility. And help them improve by providing them with regular, effective and fair feedback.

【推荐1】All cats have something that makes them endearing and special, but one particular kitty from the UK has been around to stay special the longest. Meet Flossie, a black and brown kitty, was named the oldest living cat by the Guinness World Records. She was 26 years and 316 days old — for a cat, that’s equal to 120 human years — when she was awarded the title on November 10. 2022.

Flossie’s story began all the way back in 1995 when she was born as a stray in a feral colony (野外聚居地) in Liverpool. Moved by the tough conditions the kitties had to face, a group of workers decided to adopt a cat each, which is how Flossie met with her first owner. Sadly, he passed away 10 years later, but Flossie was then taken in by his sister.

The pair enjoyed 14 years together until the second owner died. After that, her son decided to take care of Flossie. Three years later, however, the third owner realized that the senior kitty had increasingly complex needs due to her age that he couldn’t fulfill, and entrusted her to a Cats Protection’s shelter, part of the UK’s largest cat welfare charity.

“It wasn’t an easy decision,” Naomi Rosling at Cats Protection told the Guinness World Records. “He sought our help when it was in Flossie’s best interests. Responsible cat ownership is when someone thinks about an animal’s needs above their feelings.”

However, that was when the organization realized what they were dealing with. “We were astonished when we saw that Flossie’s vet records showed her to be 27 years old,” Rosling said. Although at first they feared Flossie would spend her final days looking for a forever home, it didn’t take long for the loving cat to be paired with her new mom, Vicki Green, who had plenty of experience caring for older cats.

Green happily shares that despite being poorly sighted and deaf, Flossie is in good health. The sweet cat also loves taking naps on her cherished yellow blanket and “never turns her nose up at the chance of a good meal,” according to Green, who hopes this story will inspire more people to adopt senior cats.

【推荐2】When Harrison School District 2 turned to e-learning last spring, they made sure to provide each student with a laptop and the tools needed to succeed at home. But one remaining need in many families was Internet access.

Christine O’Brien, spokesperson for District 2 said, "When you had many people learning and working from home, sometimes there were Internet glitches. We wanted to avoid that and make sure students in our district could have equal chances to learn and that our families could learn from home as well."

O’Brien said that this year they made sure to survey each of their students to see who exactly needed the Internet.

“This year we were really specific about asking whether families had Internet service at home without a phone," she said. They discovered that about a thousand families needed some sort of Internet connection.

And that’s where Altia came into play. A local software company heard there was an Internet shortage for students and it stepped in to see how they could help. Teaming up with local foundations (基金会), they were able to provide a monthly Internet service that allows many people to have Internet access at the same time. Mike Juran, CEO of Altia said; “At Altia we talked to Randy Rocha at District 2 and I just put out an email to friends and people that I knew and that made its way back to Pikes Peak Community Foundation and Norwood Foundation and people spread that around. Within weeks we were able to get something done."

"The community came together and helped us piece this part. We worked so hard as a school district to get those devices into the hands of students but this was a piece that we weren’t ready to do. We hadn’t budgeted (预算) for it, so the community’s coming together to help our families in this way was really truly amazing," said O’Brien.

【推荐3】Nigerian-American musician Davido has announced he will offer more than $600,000 to orphanages (孤儿院) across Nigeria, after hosting an online call that initially caused amusement and confusion from his fans.

“If you know I've given you a hit song…send me money,” the singer wrote on Twitter earlier this week.

Known for his songs “Dami Duro” and “Fall”, Davido has been one of Africa's most famous artists over the last ten years and is the African artist with the highest number of followers on Instagram.

He launched his fundraiser Wednesday, posting his bank details online and asking friends and followers to send money, saying his aim was to raise 100 million naira ($243,000) to clear his Rolls-Royce from a port.

Soon he had already raised $17,000—and on Saturday he announced the full amount he received from fans and friends totaled over $485,000 and would be used for charitable (慈善的) purposes.

The musician, whose real name is David Adeleke, will turn 29 on November 21. He said his aim was now “to do this fundraising every year to celebrate my birthday and give back to people in need.”

Davido posted regular fundraising updates throughout Wednesday and Thursday, and several of his friends also jumped on the bandwagon. Nigerian rapper M.I Abaga said he had sent 1 million naira and wrote, “I want my own hit song with Davido.”

It's not the first charitable move from the singer Davido, who donated the earnings from his music video “Dolce & Gabbana” to pandemic (流行病) relief efforts in April 2020, as well as more than 6,000 bags of rice across his home state of Osun. Earlier this year, he was also noticed giving a free concert to children who surrounded a beach house.