I've always lived by the mantra that whatever job or role you have in a company you need to act as if you were "running your own company within a company." Or as Mark Pinkus, CEO of Zynga, recently termed it in this NYTimes article - "be the CEO of your job."
I felt this way when I started my career off in the large corporate companies and carried the philosophy with me as I transitioned into the world of entrepreneurship and startups. Mark's points on taking responsibility and really owning your role in a company hit home with me. Brad Feld's synthesis post on the article is excellent. I encourage you to go through Brad's pause and ponder the questions below.
Assuming you are in an entrepreneurial organization, are you being the CEO of your job? Is this culturally (and functionally) acceptable? Do you get rewarded for taking risks and succeeding (or failing) like your CEO does? If not, would you be more effective if you did?
