5 . 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.

7 . A merchant wanted to purchase a good-looking camel in the market and after spotting one began to bargain for it with the seller! There was a long bargain between the merchant and the camel seller, and finally the merchant bought the camel and took it home!

On reaching home, the merchant called his servant to take out the camel’s saddle. Under the   saddle, the servant found a small velvet bag which upon opening revealed him to be full of precious diamonds! The servant shouted, “Boss, you bought a camel, but look what came with it for free!”

The Merchant was also surprised when he saw diamonds in his servant’s hands which were shining and twinkling even more in the sunlight! The Merchant said: “I have bought a camel and not the diamonds, I should return it immediately!”

The servant was thinking in his mind “How stupid my boss is! Nobody will know who the owner is!”

However, the merchant did not listen to him and immediately reached the market and returned the velvet bag to the shopkeeper.

The camel seller was very happy and said, “I had forgotten that I had hidden my precious diamonds under the saddle. Now you choose any one diamond!”

The Merchant said, “I have paid the right price for the camel, so I do not need any gift and prizes!”

The more the merchant was refusing, the more the camel seller was insisting. Finally, the merchant smiled and said: “In fact, when I decided to bring back the bag, I had already kept two of the most precious diamonds with me!”

After this declaration, the camel seller was infuriated and he quickly emptied the bag and began to count his diamond! But after he counted with a heavy sigh of relief, he said “These are all my diamonds, so what were the two most precious ones that you kept?”

The Merchant said: “My honesty and my self-respect.”

Delivery drones, as the name suggests,     1     (use) to deliver goods. At the moment, delivery drones are mainly used for military action and disaster     2     (relieve), like the distribution of medicines during emergencies, especially to places that are hard     3     (reach) by other means of transport.     4     can be predicted that before long many people will be using drones to deliver daily supplies     5     food and drink. Some companies are also developing passenger drones,     6     carry people in crowded cities. Just enter a destination,     7     the drones will fly the passengers where they want to go. This could not only save time, but also     8     (great) decrease road traffic. We can assume that with     9     (improve) technology in passenger drones, we will be entering the age of personal flying vehicles. There are also many other exciting new ways to use this technology. Whatever     10     (happen), we’ll all be interacting with drones on a daily basis. There can be no denying that the technology will have a huge impact on everyday life.

As I was packing up, I noticed my colleague had left his laptop bag in my office. Since he was already home, I decided to bring it to him. It was 4:30 p. m. The snow wasn’t supposed to start until later according to the previous warning, but just to be safe, I decided to use the country roads near his home instead of the highway, which could fast become a skating rink (滑冰场).

After I dropped off the laptop case and got right back on the road, the snow started. Within minutes I was in a whiteout. I rolled down my window, thinking I could follow the edge of the road and keep to a straight line. But really, I hadn’t a clue where I was or even which side of the road I was on. I had to stop because I was afraid of driving into a farmer’s field, or worse. I called 911, only to be told that nobody was coming to get me until morning at the earliest.

Those seconds after the call were the worst of my life. Getting out to walk in a whiteout and high winds when it was -10°C wasn’t an option. So I texted my colleague whose laptop bag I had just returned. I joked about my good deed ending in disaster. But he had an idea. “Pin your location on Google Maps and send it to me,” he said.

I did, and soon he texted me back a screenshot of the satellite view of where I was. We figured out that I was on a road in between two farms. I posted this new information to my Facebook community group, pleading (恳求) for anyone who knew someone living here to help me get rescued.

Soon enough, people started responding on my post. I got a message from someone who was going to put me in touch with the family living there. At 8 p. m., my mobile phone rang. It was the son of the farmer who owned the land beside the road I was stranded (使滞留) on. He told me that his dad was coming to get me!

Then, about 45 minutes later, I saw a tall figure walking toward me in the dark, carrying a flashlight.

As his wife treated me to hot drinks, André went into the storm again and brought back another two families stranded on the road.