5 Mistakes That Kill Team Ownership (and How to Fix Them)

Is your team still not taking ownership? Here are 5 ways to solve it. Years ago I said to my team: Hey, you guys arrange the tent, I'll arrange the rest for the barbecue. So I arrived at the barbecue with the rest and what turned out - no tent arranged. Shared responsibility is no responsibility. And I literally still see this go wrong so often with the entrepreneurs I work with. Responsibilities still lie with different people. You can simply solve it. I did it by saying: Hey Peter, you arrange the tent, I'll arrange the rest. And I arrived at the barbecue afterwards and Peter had arranged the tent. He hadn't picked it up himself, hadn't set it up himself, but he had taken the responsibility and he just arranged it. 2, expectations. It happens so often that expectations are not correctly expressed or not on paper. Years ago, in 2004, I hired an employee in my pub and she said yes, I have experience working behind the bar, so I thought that's great. I hadn't looked properly at all, what did I know that she only served coffee and tea. With me she had to make mixes and we sold them under the name cocktails. So the evenings that she was working, I noticed somewhere in my gut feeling that something wasn't right with the revenue. Something was going wrong there. And what turned out afterwards, she poured much more liqueur in than was intended. But how did that happen? I hadn't managed the expectations. I hadn't clearly said how much liqueur should go in. And what did she do? She poured the liqueur into the glass with a bottle of liquor. And then she thought, that's not much. I'll add some more, because it needs to be a bit higher. Then she added the ice cubes and the rest to finish the mix. But what happens when you first pour the liquor in and then the ice cubes? Then you first think, that's not much liquor for such a big glass. While if you first put the ice cubes in, then you see that it's already quite a lot. And the right amount was also determined by the bottle. If you turn it over once and it stops, then you have exactly the right amount. But I just hadn't given her those expectations properly. And this brings me automatically to point 3. She couldn't have seen in a protocol what the right procedure was. So she didn't have the right tools and the right data. And you need to give that to your people. So you can only indicate what you expect when it's also measurable. So do give the right tools and the right data. Because if I had said to her beforehand okay, you take for this specific mixed drink you take an empty long drink glass. Then you take that bottle you turn it over once until it stops. Then you add the ice cubes and then you add the rest of Seven-Up or cola until it's full. Then you put it down and then you put a straw in it. The moment if I had described that sequence so exactly, then she would have had the tools and the data too, because then she could have seen okay with ice cubes I could have also described it will be approximately this much. And then you have the tools and the data to give to the employee in advance anyway okay, this is how it should be, this is how it's correct. And afterwards you can see from the data okay, do you see what went wrong? Not to punish, but just as a reflection moment to see, hey, this is how it works. This way you can also give someone much more ownership, because then that person can check it themselves. Instead of the expectations beforehand being unclear. 2 and 3 is of course together. Number 4 I find very important myself and a very nice one to tell. You must as an entrepreneur, and this often goes wrong, really dare to let go of the ownership. Because you often don't do that. Then you say okay, you take it on. But meanwhile you're looking over their shoulders a bit. Doesn't work. You know what the simplest example is? I once had an entrepreneur and he didn't even come with a business question, but he was going crazy about his son. Because his son never cleaned his room. And I asked him okay, but who worries most about that room? He said yes, me. Me of course, because yes, he needs to learn that, he needs to clean that up. But if you then talk about responsibility or ownership, who takes the responsibility for cleaning the room? In this case the entrepreneur, in other words dad. That doesn't work, because shared responsibility doesn't work. And in this case the responsibility also lay with the wrong person. Because the moment when you as an entrepreneur say to someone from your team, hey, take this on, but you stay on top of it, then that entrepreneur doesn't feel any ownership at all. He doesn't feel responsible at all. He feels that you still carry a responsibility. So why would he or she then take the responsibility? I said to him, what if you completely let go of that room cleaning? If you just let it happen completely. Suppose it starts to smell, that you even close the door and light a scented candle in front of the door to show it smells, but it's your responsibility. Suppose you were so rigorous about it that you just don't care anymore and that you really don't care anymore. So that you don't do this as a trick to give the responsibility to the other person for a moment, but meanwhile still keep watching with one eye. No, really that you just say and decide I don't care anymore. He did it and what happened? Within a few days that room was cleaned. I shared this story on Instagram and then all kinds of parents came to me and they said, wow, my child suddenly cleans his own room. Just by really daring to completely let go of the responsibility. And the question is, do you do this too? Do you really give the responsibility to your employee, to your team? Or do you still secretly hold on to it yourself? Because as long as you do that, then that responsibility will never fall on the other person. And then he won't take that ownership at all either. That automatically brings me to 5, because it has to do with trust. Safety and trust you must give when your team is afraid to make mistakes. Or is even afraid to do his or her work at all. Then it also doesn't happen that they will take ownership. Because when a team member of yours doesn't do something, then he can't have done it wrong either. Then he can't be held accountable for it either. It's a very sneaky way that sneaks in. How do you give safety and trust? I've made a whole training about that, I won't bore you with that. I ran a pilot and in that pilot we significantly increased customer satisfaction in 6 weeks. Customer satisfaction was already high, it was at 8.8 and we managed to raise it to 9.6. But what we saw was that the trust and safety that my team felt, that that had also increased from 84 to 96. And then the question is is one related to the other? I'm sure it has to do with safety and trust of the team. Because when your team feels safe and trusted to do the right things, to be able to take responsibility themselves and therefore also to be allowed to make those mistakes, then they will also take full ownership. And that benefits the customer experience. And what the most important, absolutely most important question is to you. Do you ensure on every front that your employee can perform his or her work in the best possible way? Or are you the obstacle? Because that's where it lies. Are you that entrepreneur who really dares to convey that ownership to your team? That the responsibility lies there, while they also feel safe enough to do everything to do the best for your customer and therefore also for your business. Of course those two must be aligned. And so what you can best do is ask yourself that question. And even better ask that question to your employees. Are you currently able to do your work in the best possible way? And if there is even the slightest doubt, then your next question is how can I ensure that you can? So how can I as an entrepreneur help you to do your work the very best? And then of course the bonus tip. Ideally you hire people who tell you what problems they solve in your business and how they do that. Because when you hire people and you're already going to tell them exactly what they need to do and you don't do that according to say a McDonald's protocol, where you really describe everything in steps. Like I mentioned at number 2 expectations. The moment if you don't do that. Then that doesn't work of course. And I assume that you actually want to have people who take ownership themselves and who tell you how they can best perform their work. Because you shouldn't be the smartest person at all in that employee's position. That's why you're the CEO or entrepreneur. You just sit in a different position. Ideally you're not the best person for that position. So ideally you also don't know best what's needed in that position. Think about that. So safety and trust and you create that especially by always asking the question what can I do for you so that you can do your work better? That's the most important thing. If you then also give them the tools and the data, so that they can also know that themselves, then they can reflect on that themselves. Then they can also tell you in turn, I did this well, that well, that badly and that, I just haven't learned that yet. I don't know yet whether that's good or bad, because I don't have enough data for that. Can you provide me with that data? Then they take ownership, because then they'll say, I have sufficient data. I see that this, this, this is going well, that, that, that isn't. That's not going well, I'm doing this and this and this about it. Because that's what you want. Then you have to ask that question. What can I do better for you? Then they have to experience safety and trust. And then you have to give them tools and data, so they can do that too, so they can actually perform that and also take that responsibility. So in summary number 1. 1 person is responsible. For whatever, whatever output, whatever process, 1 person responsible. 2, make sure the expectations are clear. Do you want someone to work 40 hours and stick to that? Or do you want someone to deliver output, regardless of how many hours they work? Clear, make the expectations clear. 3, give them tools and data. Without tools and data they don't know if they're doing their work well and they can't do their work well either. Very important. 4, make sure they clean their room. No, put the responsibility with the employee. Make sure that you really put the reins in your employee's hands, your team's hands. Say, hey team, you Linda from the team, you're responsible and arrange this with the team. And you lean back. It feels a bit scary or even lazy, that's also possible, but it's up to the team. Really dare to give it to them. They're also better at it than you. You're in a different role. Very important. And 5, give them safety and trust. That when they get to work on it, they have the tools and the data. Then make sure that when they do something wrong, I want to use a swear word. When they do something wrong, that you say, hey, how can I make sure you don't do it wrong next time? How can I help you with that? What do you need from me? Because then, then you also take extreme ownership. Because the question is, are you already ready to take full ownership? Because that's also necessary, so that you can set that example for your team. Which of the 5 are you going to implement? Do you want to take the next step? Go to WWW dot Paulvette dot com and I'll see you there. --- This transcript has been translated from Dutch.