One of the big parts about being a productive member of this team is taking ownership over your work. While we talk a lot about ownership, I have realized that we have neglected to clearly define what we mean. I will address that in this article.
Why is ownership important?
Think about two hypothetical teams. One team has a leader who is constantly micromanaging, nagging and following up on piecemeal tasks handed down to members from their superiors. Now, consider an alternative: a team where members autonomously identify problems and solve them on their own. They keep the leader updated, but the leader doesn’t need to hover over them because he trusts them. Which team would you rather be a part of? I would wager that for most, the latter team sounds more fun. A team where each member takes on ownership for the success of the group is a true team: everyone is aligned on the same objective and each player understands how they contribute to the whole. When each member is accountable, it becomes much easier for us to focus on the work, rather than on what the other member is doing.
What does ownership look like?
Here are some of the things that you can do to take more ownership over your work:
1. Set clear priorities
A team member who takes ownership over their work sets clear priorities and goals for themselves. No one can do this for you, not even your subteam lead, because no one understands your circumstances better than you do. To set clear priorities, you must understand your own values, the needs and objectives of the team, and how much you are able to get done in a given amount of time. Setting priorities doesn’t mean you have to be rigid—it can be done continuously as you complete your work, and as your conception of what’s important grows.
2. Independently seek out opportunities to learn new skills
Rocket engineering is hard. It requires a lot of domain specific knowledge: how to size components, draw schematics, use CAD, etc. One of the tough things with this project is that we don’t have the time to teach everyone everything they need to learn and to meet our project deadlines. Other times, we simply do not know what we need to know to move forward. In both cases, it falls on each of each one of us to teach ourselves what we need to know. This could look like us doing internet research on our own, setting up meetings with mentors and with other teams, and making an attempt at solving problems before the next meeting (see #3).
Now, the key thing here is to know when to ask for help. Although we want everyone to be self-sufficient in the development of our knowledge base, learning by ourselves requires that we have the humility to call in the reinforcements when we get stuck.
3. Identify and address problems or challenges that arise
Many problems get worse the longer they go unaddressed. Furthermore, it takes time to communicate them up the chain of command. If steps are taken to address problems immediately when they are found, this helps contain the chaos, even if the solutions are flawed. For example, if you discover issues in the design, you can set up meetings with mentors or draft potential solutions on the spot. Then, you can approach me or your subteam lead and say “Hi <subteam lead>, I uncovered X problem in the design and have already set up a meeting with Y to learn more, and have come up with solution Z to deal with it.” It is much easier for your fellow team members to provide input on an existing solution than to come up with a new one on the spot, and approaching a discussion with a list of potential next steps is much higher energy than merely approaching it with a problem.
Another common issue I have seen on many of the teams I have been on is that people wait to be told what to do. This causes work to grind to a halt whenever the primary drivers of work get busy and don’t have time to check in. If each of us understands the objectives of the whole team, we can avoid this by jumping on the next most important thing that needs to happen to make the project a success without asking for permission beforehand. If you don’t have anything to do, you can figure out ways to help your fellow teammates. Remember: the biggest opportunities may lie outside of your subteam.
4. Overcommunicate to team members and stakeholders
The need for communication between team members scales as the work becomes more self-directed. If subteam leads aren’t handing down tasks to their members, it becomes more difficult for them to keep track of exactly what everyone is working on. Furthermore, it is important for all of the team members to know what everyone else is doing so that we can avoid duplicate work, and so that everyone is operating on the most up-to-date information. With more communication, everyone can prioritize better, freeing up the subteam leads to plan for the long-term. Not only is communication a way to transmit information to your colleagues, it’s an opportunity for you to take pride in your work, and to inspire them!
Why is taking ownership so hard?
Taking ownership over something is inherently uncomfortable. It entails a level of accountability for the work you complete, meaning that if you screw up, everyone will be looking to you to fix it. This is stressful, especially if you aren’t used to it. However, in healthy doses, this stress is eustress—beneficial, growth-inducing stress. Being accountable for the results you produce is an incredible motivator to complete high-quality work.
Ownership is also hard because you have to be confident enough in your understanding of the needs of the project to act on it. Many people shy away from taking ownership because they think that their actions will “interrupt the flow” of the team. While this may be the case in the short term, there’s no better way than interrupting the teams priorities to build a better understanding of what those priorities are. There’s nothing to be afraid of!
Further Reading:
Also known as the 80/20 rule. This rule states that 80% of the outcome usually comes from 20% of the contributing factors; a very useful framework for prioritization.
A memoir written by Navy captain L. David Marquet, who turned the worse submarine in the fleet into one of the best in less than 2 years. In the book he discusses his framework of leader-leader, where everyone on board is a leader, versus leader-follower, where there is only one leader and everyone else is a mindless follower.
The Manager’s Handbook!
Great blog post about how to drive energy in teams as a leader.
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