How to Create More Ownership, So You Can Stop Doing It All

How do I get my team to take more ownership?

It's normal to feel stuck as you try to build a team beneath you. You desire to grow your business or elevate your role in your career.

And you know that you'll need to start replacing yourself if you are to rise to new levels in your profession.

But people just don't seem to care as much as you do.  They don't take the initiative that you expect.

There's no ownership.

This is a common experience for many and these simple practices will create more ownership on your team. 

Imagine what would be possible for you if your team took more ownership. With this simple and pivotal practice, you might find you're closer than you think.

In this video, we'll explore a simple principle that will create more ownership on your team and three simple practices that can help you get there faster.

How to Create More Ownership, So You Can Stop Doing It All

Transcript - April 16, 2020

How do I get my team to take more ownership?

Hi, I'm Zach. I'm a leadership and performance coach with create purpose. I work with a lot of leaders, entrepreneurs, and executives to gain the clarity, focus, and energy they need and want to create the results they desire in their business and teams.

This question of ownership is coming up a lot right now.

I think that it's because, in this time of crisis, there's a lot more necessity and urgency to go make some plays. Execution is becoming all the more important.

So I think it's putting a spotlight on something that is a challenge for a lot of leaders and business owners. And that is to get their team to take ownership.

That's what we want, right? That's why we got into this, that's why we started the business, and why we want to be leaders. Because we want to create great results with a team and we want to see multiple people taking ownership so that we can do what only we can do.

They're excelling. We're excelling. And we're all creating this amazing body of work, right?

That's what we want. That's why we're in this game.

Yet here we are.

"How do I get them to take more ownership?"

"They just don't take ownership?"

"I don't get it. I don't understand?"

Those are the questions we're scratching our heads asking.

I want to share some ideas around this because there is one truth that I think really shines a light on why people might not be taking ownership.

People support what they create.

So if you want people to take more ownership, you've got to allow them to have more skin in the game, have more say in the creation of whatever the game is that you're playing.

I think this is very hard for a lot of leaders to do because implicit in letting them support what they create-- letting them create it means letting go.

For a leader, it means letting go of control and leaving some of the strategies up to the team, which is implicit in what ownership is.

We want to see more ownership but we're unwilling to give it.

This is so often on a hang up--we're unwilling to let go!

We end up contributing to the very lack of ownership across our team that we experience.

I mean, just sit with that for a moment. I mean, how true is that?

So if it is true, where do we go from here?

What are some simple things we can do?

The first idea I have for you came through a study Google did around what leads to high performing teams.

And the number one thing in that study leading to high performing teams was psychological safety.

Great high performing teams have one thing in common and that is they all have psychological safety.

So if you want people to start taking ownership and to start supporting the things that they're creating, then you must, as the leader, ensure that there's psychological safety within your teams, your meetings, and your business.

Oftentimes, we can be fairly judgmental and very critical.

First, I know that as a leader, as a high performer, you can be very hard on yourself and very critical of yourself.

How we see ourselves often gets reflected back to how we see others. We become very critical of how others do the job.

We might see them as lazy or we see them as disorganized or not taking initiative.

"They just don't get it," we'll say. "They're just not hard workers."

We put these judgments on the individuals within our teams.

It's not helping, because they can sense our disapproval of them.

And that doesn't allow them to feel very safe.

So they don't speak up, they don't actually contribute, they don't actually take ownership, because they know that we don't really believe in them.

It prevents them from fully showing up.

And so...just check in with yourself here. How could you create more psychological safety within your teams?

How can you be more open to different opinions and approaches to accomplishing a goal?

Not everybody has to do it exactly how you would do it.

But you know what? That's hard.

It's very hard because we have this vision of what we want to be done, but we also have a vision of how we want it done.

And as we cling to that, we never end up letting go so that our team can figure out how they'll accomplish the goal. We're right there directing them.

There's no way they can take ownership because we're still owning it!

Brendon Burchard, an author and researcher of high-performance says, "stop pointing fingers and start drawing circles."

What we often do is we point fingers.

We get so focused on what needs to be done, that we never take a step back and actually ask the whole team, "what would we most like to create here?"

"What's the result that we most want to see happen here?"

For your team to take more ownership, you have to give it.

Co-create the what, the goal, the vision. Collaboratively paint the vision of the result you really want to see happen.

Ask questions like...What does it look like? How will we know we're successful?

Get clear.

Once you give them the what, then you now have to let them figure out how.

And that's what ownership is.

To do that we can't be pointing fingers. We can't be saying, "alright, go here, do this." "Did you do that yet?" "Hey, double-check that!"

As soon as we're directing traffic, we're owning it.

To give ownership means co-creating the what, but then get out of their way so that they can do the how.

And that's the only way you'll learn anything.

You might learn that they're actually more talented at this than you thought. Or maybe you might find that they aren't cut out for the job.

Either way, you get real feedback that you can respond to.

All these opportunities get opened up when we create the what. When we get clear on what the objective is and what the result is that we want to see.

But then you got to get out of their way.

Because the number one thing to remember is people support what they create.

And so let them put some skin in the game and create what it is that you and the business want to see.

So that's the lesson for today. And if you enjoyed this I am actually getting ready to host a communication masterclass that'll help you further implement these ideas and more.

There's more information at the bottom of this video within the post. Check it out!

I hope to see you there.

This is a big challenge for a lot of leaders and business owners and anybody that's working with people, which is everybody.

How do you and I communicate clearly, so that people can follow and so that people can fully execute on the vision of the business? That's what we'll be exploring.

Remember that the lesson for today is people support what they create. So let them create it. Give them the what and then allow them to figure out the how.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai