Gaining a sense of ownership helps employees care about the quality and timeliness of outcomes, take initiative when opportunities arise, and foster a culture of accountability.
But giving employees a sense of ownership doesn’t happen overnight. It requires time, effort, and strategy.
How to build team ownership into your processes
Team ownership is all about aligning employees toward a common objective and the team being driven and motivated enough to follow that goal through from start to finish. Achieving this goal also involves a personal malaysia telephone number data sense of job ownership. Here are six ways to make ownership part of your team processes.
Try to delegate more tasks
Giving employees a sense of ownership as individuals means assigning responsibilities, tasks, and authority, not just work. Begin with assignments that play to their strengths, interests, and job roles. Later, look for leadership opportunities to keep them engaged.
Tips on how to provide a sense of ownership using delegation include:
Learning to let go. Start small. Delegate the easier, lower priority tasks. As trust builds between you and the team, you can assign more involved tasks.
Making it relevant. Whenever possible, assign employees to the tasks related to their experience or background, not just by availability or the lightest workload.
Giving instructions. Provide all the necessary details for the tasks you delegate. Whether it’s a deadline to meet or a protocol to follow, be upfront with details.
Training as needed. If no one else possesses the skills to complete a task, train someone. Any skill can be taught, and time spent teaching is a good investment.
Trusting but verifying. After delegating a task, let employees handle them on their terms. But check in at key milestones to see if things are moving forward.
Providing feedback. Few things are as critical to delegation than feedback. Whether it’s constructive criticism or praise, let everyone know how they’re doing.
Delegating tasks doesn’t come naturally. We often lack trust that things will get done, fear that mistakes will happen, or feel a need to remain in control. Giving employees a sense of ownership will get easier with repetition and practice.
Clearly communicate deadlines
When delegating tasks or assigning projects, spend time to ensure that everyone knows what’s expected of them. In particular, the deadline when their work must be completed.
Communicate all the steps involved and scope the time needed for each of those steps.
This will help clarify expectations while also breaking down the work into manageable pieces. Once deadlines are set, hold team members accountable. Ask for reports on their progress and other success metrics to demonstrate each milestone is being met.
Being non-negotiable about deadlines might seem harsh, but it’s a key aspect of how to provide a sense of ownership for the employees on your team. People appreciate the clarity and motivation deadlines provide.
Hold regular check-ins
Giving employees a sense of ownership includes keeping them updated on their progress and how their efforts are being perceived. Scheduling check-in meetings helps create opportunities for employees to share the status of ongoing projects and other work responsibilities with you.
Check-in meetings can take the form of daily, five-minute standup meetings or weekly, one-hour meetings. They can occur in person, online via chat or Zoom, one-on-one, or as a team.
Whatever the length or format of a check-in meeting, it should cover the following:
What are you working on today?
What do you plan to handle next?
What things do you need help with?
By the end of a check-in meeting, employees will feel a greater sense of ownership and accountability. Managers will gain a better understanding of the priorities and needs for the day. Keep meetings to the point, with clear takeaways.
If issues arise during check-in meetings, schedule a follow-up meeting.
Give input without micromanaging
Holding employees accountable can be an effective way for giving employees a sense of ownership. However, micromanaging tends to wear down that sense of ownership.
Rather than helping team members become more independent, self-reliant, and capable of figuring out solutions, managers who seek to control every part or detail of a project undermine the confidence of their employees.
It’s okay to set clear expectations about desired results, or to provide employees with the help or guidance they seek, but at the same time, don’t be afraid of letting them fail.
Fight the urge to step in and fix things on your own or to dictate how employees should approach a task. Building a sense of ownership also means owning the results as well as knowing when to ask for help.
Incorporate a feedback loop
Even though they won’t always ask for it directly, most employees want feedback. To ensure it’s not overlooked, make feedback a primary part of your internal processes.
Remember, a feedback loop is a two-way street. Team members should know that they have a voice. Providing them with the ability to shape strategy, craft solutions, or share ideas are all helpful when it comes to establishing a sense of ownership for your team.
