Leadership Ownership is About More than Looking in the Mirror – Leadership Insights from Liddell Consulting

All leaders feel some sense of responsibility over their business and employees. All leaders acknowledge that their actions have an impact on those looking to them for direction.

But what leadership ownership really gets to the heart of is the need to take responsibility even for outcomes that are out of your hands. Whether directives from the board or wild market swings or employee missteps or a global pandemic, the best leaders take ownership even when they don’t have control.

Speak with a Consultant

Trust

Leadership isn’t a one and done or periodic effort, it is an investment in the people you have chosen to bring into your company. It is an investment in their lives outside of your business, in addition to the work they do for you.

The example of leadership ownership that came up in last week’s office hours discussion, was taking ownership of the decision to fire an employee when you have to deliver the news to the employee, but didn’t make the final call. It’s not easy to look someone in the face who you have been working with for years – you know their spouse and dog and kids – and tell them that they are no longer an employee. It would be easy to say that the decision was caused by someone or something else, but who would that benefit?

This is why we preach building a culture of trust and transparency. Hopefully you won’t often encounter this situation because you have been honest about the company’s and the employee’s performance all along. If you do, however, the employee won’t be blindsided – they will understand the context.

Accountability

Not taking responsibility for the good, the bad, the unpredicted, the uncertain, you are closing the door to the trust that you have worked hard to build. You have invested in keeping your employees apprised of the changes to your business that you have strategically directed. You should keep them informed when things don’t go your way (or theirs) as well.

Leadership ownership reinforces the idea to employees that they can talk about their own missteps or shortcomings or challenges instead of hiding them or avoiding them, which allows for a resolution. Building up the team of individuals as a collective makes not only that team, but your company stronger.

Inspire

When you hear people talk about the leaders who have inspired them – or when you think back on the ones who have inspired you – what traits do they have in common? Most certainly it wasn’t that they blamed everyone and everything around them for failures or setbacks. It’s more likely how they grew from those learning opportunities and built forward in a better and stronger direction.

That’s not to say we don’t learn from our experiences with poor leaders and defensive communicators. It’s likely, however, that we learned who to emulate by reading about or watching leaders who were consistent and accountable and humble and were themselves inspired.

Learn about Executive Coaching

What Kind of Leader Are You?

We ask this frequently in different contexts. What kind of leader are you? What kind of leader do you want to be? Being a great leader is all about continuing to learn and listening, as much as it is about instincts and vision. Take a look at your goals and vision and see where there is opportunity to learn.

Let’s Talk

“The best-performing SEAL units had leaders who accepted responsibility for everything. Every mistake, every failure or shortfall — these leaders would own it.”

-Jocko Willink and Babin Leif

See What We’re Reading