| How do we get teams to “own” deliverables? |
| Few things delight leaders more than seeing someone on their team grasp a vision and take ownership of delivering excellent work that aligns with that vision.
“Ownership” is not simply completing projects; it’s a sense of responsibility and commitment towards the successful delivery of an outcome. It’s delivering on initiatives with innovation and efficiency. It’s proactive problem-solving and an eagerness to take on more within the ambit of their roles. Here are ways in which we’ve seen leaders enable ownership: Through autonomy: To enable ownership, some leaders provide autonomy – a worthy starting point. This increases engagement and innovation as teams embrace their freedom. But in isolation, they might pursue a direction that’s not in line with the organisation’s objectives, leading to wasted efforts. Through accountability: Other leaders hold teams accountable for delivering the work. It increases the sense of responsibility and the speed of delivery. It can also increase the level of delivery as teams need to stand by their work, but they will eventually disengage as micromanagement creeps in. Through alignment: Yet another approach is to drive alignment within the team. This is necessary to enable the understanding of the vision, which is often blurry for those who don’t engage with it daily. However, over-emphasising the constant need to align in more meetings will reduce traction. The truth is that all three of these elements are useful in their own right, but individually, they fall short. The “ownership” mindset is found at the intersection of these three elements. |
This balance is where true ownership is cultivated.
Provide autonomy as the fuel for innovation and engagement.
Ensure a healthy level of accountability as an anchor to avoid teams drifting away with ideas instead of delivering on their promises.
Create opportunities for alignment as the guiding light, keeping everyone honest to the ultimate vision.
A few words of warning:
- Without autonomy, you find constrained teams. They will constantly be blocked by red tape and a need to sit in forums where alignment and accountability both create the need for more reporting.
- Without accountability, you find comfortable teams. They have autonomy and loads of comfortable conversations to align with each other, but no responsibility to deliver or urgency for action.
- Without alignment, you find confused teams. They’ve been provided with autonomy and can operate independently, but they still need to be part of a larger group. These teams tend to work in silos, most probably on initiatives that aren’t aligned with the larger vision, with the result that those initiatives never see the light of day.
It’s a delicate balance.
And there’s one key to unlocking all three of these doors: communication.
Let teams know they have autonomy and demonstrate it to them.
Create the reporting metrics and structures for accountability, with a proper understanding of what accountability means.
Drive constant alignment by talking about the vision, strategy, goals and targets of the organisation, over and over again.
Finding the balance is worth it.
If you have questions, we’re always keen for coffee.
Get in touch so that we can brainstorm a few solutions together!
