{"id":210418,"date":"2024-04-06T17:58:21","date_gmt":"2024-04-07T00:58:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jonplotner.com\/v1\/?p=210418"},"modified":"2024-04-06T17:58:24","modified_gmt":"2024-04-07T00:58:24","slug":"unpacking-accountability-vs-ownership-fostering-an-ownership-culture-in-your-workplace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jonplotner.com\/v1\/unpacking-accountability-vs-ownership-fostering-an-ownership-culture-in-your-workplace\/","title":{"rendered":"Unpacking Accountability vs. Ownership: Fostering an Ownership Culture in Your Workplace"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

I follow a plethora of leadership gurus on social media that provide great content. One of those individuals is Scott Cochrane. I don\u2019t know Scott personally, but I\u2019ve found much of what he\u2019s written and\/or posted to challenge my thinking. One of those comments was: \u201cResponsibility creates accountability. Authority creates ownership.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Stop and re-read that a couple of times and let it sink in. All of that sounds great. In high performing businesses and teams we\u2019re looking for people to take ownership, accountability, responsibility, and authority. That\u2019s what good leaders (and good followers) do. Nothing revolutionary there. But when you read it a bit more closely and look at the intentionality of the words, there\u2019s more to unpack.<\/span><\/p>\n

Accountability and ownership, while both powerful and important, aren\u2019t the same thing. As a renter of a home, I am accountable for making sure that I care for that home. I pay a hefty deposit to make sure that I do. I keep it clean. I mow the lawn. I change the lightbulbs and mop the floors (well my wife does some of that, and I wont\u2019 say which of those things). But once I became a homeowner, it was different. Not only was I accountable for that home and its care, I was now an owner. Now I was responsible for painting it when the exterior started to fade. I had to replace the furnace when the old one failed. And when I say \u201creplace\u201d I mean I had to shell out thousands of dollars.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When you\u2019re an owner, you\u2019re not only accountable, you begin to look at everything through a different lens. You\u2019re now making an investment in something that you hope will pay dividends years down the road. You can\u2019t pass that responsibility off to someone else.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the workplace, we give folks responsibility and hold them accountable for results. At first glance, that is great. But someone in your business or on your team who is accountable isn\u2019t the same as someone who takes ownership. In business terms, what does ownership look like?<\/span><\/p>\n

You don\u2019t just enjoy and benefit from the culture; you create it \u2026 and correct it.<\/span><\/h2>\n

We often think that team and company culture is something that we either enjoy or acknowledge when it\u2019s bad. Owners don\u2019t view culture as something to enjoy. They view it as something they own. They are culture creators, carriers, and caretakers. And part of creating a healthy, positive, life-giving culture in your organization includes correcting it when you see violations.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

After experiencing a long season of an unhealthy leadership culture, I had the opportunity to restart my career at an amazing organization that had one of the best cultures I have experienced. One of the things that made it that way was that everyone owned that culture. I remember one particular day when someone overheard a conversation I was having with a customer on the phone. To this day, I can\u2019t at all remember what I said or where I made a cultural violation. What I do remember is the coworker that had the guts to come over to me after I was done and kindly let me know that what I had just said or done was in violation of the culture. It stung a bit, but more than anything I was impressed that I was a part of a culture that people care enough about the organization and me to call folks on it. Twelve years later, that conversation still has an impact on me.<\/span><\/p>\n

You spend the company's money like it\u2019s your own.<\/span><\/h2>\n

When traveling for work, I have the ability to choose which airline I fly on, which cars I rent, and which hotels I stay in. When making those choices, I think about what choice I would make if it was my own money. If two hotels are basically the same and I can save $50 a night by choosing the cheaper one, I choose that one. Spend the company\u2019s money like it is yours.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s not them or me. It\u2019s us.<\/span><\/h2>\n

When decisions are made, it\u2019s easy to refer to the company as \u201cthem.\u201d I\u2019m not sure who \u201cthem\u201d is but we throw that language around quite flippantly. \u2018Them\u2019 language immediately creates division and disunity. Owners never use \u2018them\u2019 language. They use \u201cus\u201d language. No matter the challenge or the win, owners realize that all of us are in it together. We win together; we lose together. It\u2019s never about silos and segments. It\u2019s about all of us as ONE team owning the results.<\/span><\/p>\n

When the leaders set a goal, a target, an initiative, or a focus, you don\u2019t wait for someone else to tell you how to adjust your work to support it. You immediately look for ways to support it.<\/span><\/h2>\n

Owners don\u2019t wait to be told what they need to do. They find ways to accomplish the goal. They go to their leaders and share what they\u2019ve already done and ask what they can continue to do to move the needle. They default to action with little direction because they internalize the direction of the organization and drive results to see success.<\/span><\/p>\n

You can give people responsibilities and hold them accountable. But if you really want to create an ownership mentality in your organization, you need to also give people authority. In what ways, can you give people authority? Particularly for individuals that aren\u2019t leaders and don't typically have the ability to make business-impacting decisions. What are the decisions an individual can make with little to no direction? What decisions require consultation with leadership. The more authority you give your teams, the more ownership you will see.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you would like to know more about how you can create an ownership culture among your teams and in your business, I\u2019d love to chat with you more about how I may be able to help build the culture that you\u2019re looking for. Reach out to me at <\/span>jon@jonplotner.com<\/span><\/a> to talk about the coaching services I can provide alongside my team at <\/span>The 4Sight Group<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Taking insights from leaders like Scott Cochrane, it’s clear that real ownership in a business goes beyond accountability. Owners foster culture, spend wisely, and act unified as “us” not “them.” They’re proactive, driving results without waiting for direction. To cultivate ownership, leaders must grant authority, allowing teams to make decisions and truly invest in the company’s success.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":210419,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[31],"tags":[141,58,140,143],"class_list":["post-210418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-main","tag-accountability","tag-leadership","tag-ownership","tag-teamwork"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jonplotner.com\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/pexels-photo-8293700.jpeg?fit=1880%2C1253&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pzg9k-SJQ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":211605,"url":"https:\/\/jonplotner.com\/v1\/support-leadership-fostering-ownership-and-partnership-for-results\/","url_meta":{"origin":210418,"position":0},"title":"Support & Leadership: Fostering Ownership and Partnership for Results","author":"Jon Plotner","date":"May 8, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday, I attended a customer meeting with one of our customer success managers, and it turned into a real eye-opener about what leadership should be. 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