What does Ownership mean?

There are companies that espouse “Ownership” as a core value or as a leadership principle (e.g. Amazon). What does it really mean though? As per the Amazon Leadership Principles “Leaders are owners. They think long term and don’t sacrifice long-term value for short-term results. They act on behalf of the entire company, beyond just their own team. They never say ‘that’s not my job.’” There is some good stuff here, however one has to internalize and apply the concept.

Below is a blue print that you will ever need to master the concept of “Ownership”.

• When you own a home, you own all the benefits and problems that come along with it. You don’t say ‘dealing with the plumbing issues or HVAC is not my problem’. You can delegate, prioritize and outsource many of those things, in the end you ‘own’ it.
  
• As an owner, you are accountable for the outcomes, not for the tasks. Owners don’t play victim and articulate what they are doing– they focus on the outcomes they want to achieve and how they plan to achieve those.
  
• Ownership does not mean that you have to know the details and worry about everything in the company. One simply can’t do that in a large company. Amazon Leadership Principle says ‘They think long term and don’t sacrifice long-term value for short-term results. They act on behalf of the entire company, beyond just their own team‘. Things to unpack here
  • Think long term and don’t sacrifice long-term value for short term results. One way to think about this is ‘What is the right solution? and what is the fast way to get there‘? instead of ‘What is the cheapest and fast way to get this off my list’?.
    
  • They act on behalf of the entire company, beyond just their own team. This is an interesting one, because even Senior Leaders get into the mindset of thinking of their own team/org. If you pivoted and asked ‘What is the right solution to the problem reagrdless of who does the work and get the credit/blame for it‘? the answer might be different.

In the end, everything is a choice and one size does not fit all. Hopefully the above triggers your thinking.