Own It

This month’s blog post is about our core value “Own It”. When you hear the words own it or ownership, what do you think of? The first thing that comes to mind for me is responsibility, whether that is being responsible for a possession or for a particular action.

Do you own a vehicle or a house? What is the responsibility of owning something like that? There are monthly and yearly costs such as insurance, maintenance, taxes, misc fees, etc. You must also pay for the commodities or utilities of running either of those. What happens when you neglect any or all of these? You run the risk of negatively affecting the value or possibly losing it. Whose responsibility is it that all those items get taken care of? Yes, you guessed it, it is YOURS!

Ownership in the workplace is no different. You have certain responsibilities to take care of so that your part, no matter how big or small, positively affects you, the business, and others around you. When you neglect your responsibilities, you run the risk of reducing your value or possibly losing your job just like in the example above regarding a vehicle or house. No one wants that, right?

Taking ownership of your work tells others that you can be trusted. “I got this!” It means that you will most likely deliver on time, do the right thing, and have favorable results. It also means that you will be open and honest with your team (open communication) about times when you can’t deliver for whatever reason(s). When others know that you do what you say and do your best to accomplish that, they aren’t surprised when you come through with flying colors. They will also have a much greater understanding of those times when you might fall short.

If your teammates do not trust you, that can result in lower productivity from them as they are spending time on details that are not part of their role. Not only does this hurt the business, it leads to resentment from those that are having to step up and make sure everything is getting taken care of. Would you want to put others on your team through that? I didn’t think so.

So let’s all step up, do the right thing, take responsibility for our work, and OWN IT!