This is a YouTube video titled "Notes from the Field - Creating Ownership" containing a monologue or talk recorded in January 2024. The speaker discusses leadership strategies focused on fostering ownership within teams by encouraging problem-solving through guided questioning rather than providing direct answers. The content is reflective and instructional, aimed at leaders seeking to empower their team members.
As leaders, we can assign responsibility, and we should. We can even assign accountability, and we should. But we cannot assign ownership. By definition, ownership has to be taken. But what can we do as leaders to create an environment where more people are apt to take that ownership? One way to do that is not by solving other people's problems, but by asking them questions to help them come to our own conclusion. I am not talking about asking the question, well, what would you do? They're coming to you. Your team member is coming to you, because they have a problem to solve. But the last thing we want to do is give them the answer. Asking them questions like, what's working? What's not working? Why do you believe it's not working? What are the obstacles in your way of achieving what you need to achieve? Why do you think those obstacles are there? What's one thing you can do now to get closer to the solution? The questions need to be yours, but they're designed to take them from the problem to thinking about their own solution. That's just one simple way of creating an environment where more people on your team will start to take real ownership.
