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Owning Your Work – Part II

Today’s Three Things is the second of a two-part series by Rebecca Epstein, the Chief Operating Officer and Vice President of Client Services at The Management Center (TMC). The Management Center (TMC) works with talented nonprofit leaders who are experts in their fields, have thrived as individual performers, and now must learn how to get things done through other people – in other words, how to manage. Learn more about TMC at www.managementcenter.org.

Today’s Three Things is the second of a two-part series by Rebecca Epstein, the Chief Operating Officer and Vice President of Client Services at The Management Center (TMC). The Management Center (TMC) works with talented nonprofit leaders who are experts in their fields, have thrived as individual performers, and now must learn how to get things done through other people – in other words, how to manage. Learn more about TMC at www.managementcenter.org.

As we noted last week, much has been written about the importance of giving people a sense of ownership over their work, but significantly less attention has been paid to what it means to be a good owner. The two practices of handing over ownership and being a good owner are inextricably linked: without trusting that a staff member will really drive a piece of work forward and take responsibility for its success, it’s much harder for managers to delegate full ownership (or, as is often the case, to delegate work at all beyond the simplest of tasks!).

Last week we offered up three tips to get a handle on “owning” a piece of work. This week, we’re following up with three more tips to make you an effective owner, and thereby a more effective manager.

Here’s the headline: Do it all with a spirit of ownership! Even in the context of the best-planned work, issues will inevitably arise: people won’t respond to your repeated calls and emails, timelines will shift due to circumstances outside your direct control, unexpected costs will outweigh limited resources. One way or another, you can pretty much bank on things not going according to plan all the time. In our experience, there are generally two types of owners: the helpless victim who thinks her hands are tied when problems arise and often makes things harder (e.g., “there’s no way we can meet deadline now”) and the can-do driver who takes things in stride, adjusts to new circumstances, and finds ways to keep moving forward (e.g., “if we move our internal deadline back by one week we’ll be able to focus on Convention and still get the book in on time”).

Can-do drivers come in many shapes and sizes but they all have one thing that makes them successful owners. We’ll call it the “Spirit of the O” and it looks like this:

1. Creative problem-solving: You actively re-strategize when issues come up, surface options, get input/approval as needed, and continue driving work forward, even if it means finding and then navigating another road. You’re not wedded to one way of doing things and because you’re focused on your outcomes (see ownership Part I), you’re flexible in how you get there.

2. Proactive approach: You realize that because success or failure lies with you, it’s unlikely that your co-workers are lying awake at night thinking about the project you own. You also recognize that sending out a brilliant action plan or polished email with clear next steps does not mean that your Helpers are automatically on it. As a result, you don’t wait for deadlines to pass or problems to arise – you take active steps to meet or prevent them, checking-in along the way, sending friendly reminder emails before deadlines come around, and nudging/cajoling as needed to keep things on track.

3. Good attitude and a focus on results: You approach your work with a can-do attitude, staying focused on where you’re trying to get and pushing past the bumps to reach the finish line. Because you enjoy your work and bring a spirit of optimism, others want to work with you and help you succeed. Sounds trite, but it’s true.

Again, being an effective owner is not easy. It takes knowing what you need to own, bringing others into the process at the right times in the right ways, and approaching it all with a true spirit of ownership. While the benefits of ownership are many – empowerment, responsibility, even happiness – the pitfall is that you’re on the hook for great work (with power comes responsibility). We think the tradeoff is well worth it and leads to happier staff, happier managers, and better outcomes for the world.