Are you giving ownership or actually just abdicating responsibility?

Too many tech leaders say that they're frustrated with their team leads, engineering managers etc because they don't take ownership.

But often the way ownership is given is like this:

- "this thing, now you do it, you're responsible for it now. Bye!"

That's not how you get people to own something.

You show the challenges, a cause, WHY, you are looking to address.

You portray a vision, a WHAT, something that engaged and inspired people.

Then you discuss with the team the HOW, coach them to work out the solution.

Then they own it. Cause they made it!

You can't just work out the WHY, WHAT and HOW in isolation, in an ivory tower and then expect people to just "own it".

They're not machines where you can programme 0101001 and they just compute.

So if your staff aren't taking ownership, perhaps check these elements:

✓ do they understand what you are trying to achieve
✓ do they understand the challenges you are looking to address
✓ did they have ANY involvement in working out how to get there?

Why else don't people take ownership?

#cto #ceo #ownership #reengineeringleadership