We hear a lot these days about getting staff to be accountable and accept ownership. But Lisa Haneberg, vice-president of organizational development for MPI Consulting, says there is a big difference between the two.
Managers hold employees accountable by building accountability actions into their daily schedule, such as providing timely feedback and measuring progress toward goals.
But ownership is not something that managers can demand. It's intrinsic, rather than extrinsic like accountability. Employees choose whether to own their work, their department's goals and their organization's mission.
"Managers need to create a work environment that improves the likelihood of high employee engagement and ownership. Employees choose to feel and display ownership," she writes in a monograph on her Management Craft blog.
You can do this through:
- Challenging work and interesting problems to solve
- Connection to the work, the team, and/or the industry and organization
- A feeling of being cared for
- Collaboration and partnership
- Autonomy to make choices that affect their work
- A feeling that their work has meaning and is important to the organization
- Work and workplaces that are fun and lighthearted
"Managers can improve ownership by creating a workplace that is intrinsically motivating. Small but sincere gestures of care and concern go a long way toward showing your team members how important they are to you," she adds.