Accountability versus Ownership

Leaders and managers are often asked to be accountable and hold their employees accountable. I think from command and control leadership through our reality today, the accountability conversation is a constant theme. As a professor and consultant, I'm regularly approached with questions about how to enhance the level of accountability in a team or organization.

As we talk about accountability, we often talk about role clarity, setting expectations, measuring feedback, performance evaluation, rewards, recognition as well as consequences. Pretty straight forward and typical of the Management 101 conversation.

Yet how often do we balance the accountability conversation with the idea of ownership? As managers we hold our employees and ourselves accountable. However, our employees choose to be an owner. As much as we might use a carrot and stick approach in our management or leadership style. That approach will only get us accountability, but what about a sense of ownership. As I look at organizations in the for-profit, nonprofit and public sectors, I often see managers who strive to have a team that has ownership, but only succeed in getting a team that is accountable (if that). So what does ownership look like? An employee who demonstrates a sense of ownership will often experience a sense of challenge, connection, collaboration, autonomy, choice, opportunity, meaning, fun and passion for the work.

In my work as a career coach, I see these ownership characteristics played out as an extension of one's values. For the values-driven professional, these are non-negotiables. In a sense, the manager who connects to the extrinsic conversation will only get an employee who exhibits a surface level commitment to the organization. It is the manager who connects to an employee's intrinsic needs and values will begin to have a team of employees who demonstrate ownership and operate at a sustainable 100%.