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Put yourself in the driver’s seat
When I ask managers what their high performers all do, it’s this: they’re all proactive. What does it mean to be proactive? It means you’re stepping up without overstepping. So you are looking left, looking right and offering ways to help others achieve their goals. At the same time you’re looking at what’s causing others stress maybe wasting their time, and offering to help there as well.
At the same time though, you’re not overstepping, so you’re not claiming someone else’s job. You’re not coming across as if you’re threatening someone else’s standing in the organization. You are instead saying, “I noticed this, would it be helpful if I did this?” Taking ownership ultimately comes down to being in the driver’s seat rather than the passenger seat in everything you do. So when we’re in a meeting it can be easy sometimes to think, well, this is someone else’s meeting, this is someone else’s domain of expertise, rather than say, I was invited to this meeting for a reason, because I was in a relevant phone call, because I have relevant experience, or because this might be relevant for the work that I’m doing, so my unspoken role in this meeting is to learn and to contribute. So it’s not someone else’s car to drive. I should be just as much contributing to this conversation and the direction of this conversation or this car as everybody else.
Taking ownership is all about not being task-oriented, but being goal-oriented. Yes, your task might be to make telephone calls, but your goal is actually to sell the company’s products or services. Yes, your task might be to export data, but your goal is to uncover insights that make people think, wow, really? To have an ownership mindset is to see how your task fits in with the broader goals of this team, of this department, and of this organization.
Navigate the RACI matrix
A key ingredient to taking ownership is to navigate the acronym RACI, R-A-C-I. R stands for responsible, A stands for accountable, C stands for consulted, and I stands for informed. Whenever you’re dealing with a project at work there will be someone who will fall under each of these categories. The person responsible is the person who’s in charge of doing the work. That may be you, for example. The person who’s accountable is the person whose reputation is on the line if things don’t go well. This is often going to be your manager. But if you’re taking ownership, you’re also having the mindset of, my reputation is on the line too.
The person who falls under the C of consulted, is the person whose opinion you might need to solicit to make this project happen, whether because this person is a subject matter expert or because this person is someone that the team needs to keep happy. And then finally, the person who falls under I is the person who needs to be kept informed. This will definitely be your manager, but it could also be your coworkers where your work might impact their work. So it’s important to let them know that, “Hey, just wanted to let you know that we have this meeting coming up that might be relevant to you if you’re able to join,” or, “We’re making this tweak to this project plan which might impact your schedule in all these different ways. Let me know if you’d like to have a conversation.”
Keeping track of who falls under the R, the A, the C, the I can mean the difference between you looking competent, committed, and compatible to your team, and someone who may come across as disorganized or just in it for themselves.