Leadership and Ownership
Randy Wolken, President & CEO

Owners act differently. When we own something, we take care of it so much better than something we’re renting. When it’s ours we truly care about it, but when it’s someone else’s we feel it’s their responsibility. This is true in life – and at work. Smart leaders should create ownership, not accountability.

We read a lot about accountability – too much in my opinion. Leaders are told to hold people accountable for their responsibilities. However, even when we do that – we still own it. We want our team to own their work, not us. Good leaders can tell the difference between ownership and accountability and work hard to keep the ownership with others. When we do so, we get much better outcomes and greater satisfaction from our teams.

You may be asking yourself, “how do you create ownership and not accountability?”

When we own something, we can use it the way we want to use it. We invest in it. We take care of it. Think about how you treat your car versus a rental car – I’d bet very differently. Make the project, task, or new product line theirs and not yours. Actively give them ownership responsibility – and don’t take it back. Review expected outcomes with them upfront; you can give them broad guidelines, and agree on deadlines, but be clear about who owns it.

The hardest thing for leaders to do is resist taking back ownership when the effort begins to fall behind or fail. We want to rush in and save it because it makes us feel important and seems to fit our job description, but it doesn’t. It only serves to transfer ownership back to us and lets the former owners distance themselves from the hard work of getting the effort back on track. As a good leader, resist taking back ownership with all your strength. It’ll pay off in both the outcomes and satisfaction of your team.

Finally, make sure you compliment and reward the success of the team owners. It encourages them to take on the next project, product, or task. Good ownership outcomes beget the next good ownership outcomes. It’s a virtuous cycle that provides great results.

Are you leading owners or renters? Do you seek ownership and not accountability? How could you model ownership over your own work while not robbing others of ownership over others?  As a leader, we need to constantly check in on how we are leading others. Let’s create organizations of owners and not team members. Life is better with ownership!