The Power of Ownership
Mar 02, 2024
Books Referenced in this article:
Extreme Ownership: Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
The Dichotomy of Leadership: Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
What you Really Need to Lead: Robert Steven Kaplan
“It wasn’t my fault!”
This is what every guilty child says after you discover the broken vase.
And it is understandable. They didn’t mean to break it. It just... fell.
In our adult lives, the difference between fault, intention, ownership, and responsibility can become frustratingly messy.
We want to control our lives and careers. But what happens when something goes wrong? What do we do next?
It depends on our mindset.
If we have an ownership mindset, we take one course of action.
If we have renter’s mindset, we take another.
In this article, I want to share the difference between the owner and the renter and how you can leverage the ownership mindset to level up your personal performance.
Learn this and you will discover opportunities for growth. You can attack life with intention.
Ignore this and you become subject to the whims of fate.
Let’s roll.
The Owner vs The Renter
If the book What you Really Need to Lead, Robert Steven Kaplan describes the ownership mindset as “… the willingness to put oneself in the shoes of a decision maker and think through all of the considerations that the decisionmaker must factor into his or her thinking and actions.”
Having an ownership mindset means you own 4 things:
- Responsibility
- Long-term commitment
- Initiative
- Accountability
Home ownership is one of the simplest analogies to connect with. If you own your home, you have a commitment and responsibility to maintain it. You have to take initiative (or be reactive) and also take accountability for the route you take.
A renter’s mindset, on the other hand, is not one of ownership. The renter’s mindset has:
- Temporary perspectives
- Limited commitment
- Limited accountability
- Dependency thinking
Who hasn’t heard about problems with renters?
While I was a great renter, and I bet you were too, the mindset of the renter is NOT one of ownership. They are less likely to take initiative and responsibility to solve problems.
When problems are not ours to solve, we wait for them to occur and then look for others to solve them.
This is not the path to high performance.
There are 3 main benefits to the ownership mindset that will help you perform at your best.
The first is about responsibility.
Ownership Leads to Responsibility
Just because something isn’t your fault doesn’t mean it isn’t your responsibility.
Back to the house example: a broken water pipe is not your fault, but you better fix it.
If you were a renter, you might let the water run and ruin everything until the owner comes to fix it.
There is power in responsibility because it drives us to action. It requires us to learn.
(Now, I use responsibility as a reactionary word. The next section will be about foresight. This section is about taking responsibility for what occurred.)
When we take responsibility, we learn from past actions and outcomes and take action to course correct.
In the book Extreme Ownership, authors Jocko Willink and Leif Babin highlight a few benefits of responsibility:
- We learn from failure
- We focus on solutions
- We are empowered to take action
Renter’s do not do this.
Which do you think is better to level up your performance?
Ownership Leads to Initiative
While taking responsibility is about owning the past, initiative is about owning the future.
Taking initiative means you do things preemptively in order to move toward an outcome you desire.
If you are a homeowner, this may mean replacing your roof after 25 years (as opposed to waiting for a leak and taking responsibility).
There are two types of initiative described in the book The Dichotomy of Leadership, written again by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin:
- Strategic initiative
- Tactical initiative
Strategic initiative is about long term planning, and setting the foundation for hitting long term goals.
Tactical initiative is about short term actions that move the needle incrementally toward your goals.
Both are necessary.
If you have a goal of getting into real estate, strategic initiative might include buying plots of land for future development. Tactical initiative might include rental rate adjustments to stay competitive with the market.
Initiative requires foresight, goal setting, and planning.
When you know what you want and you actively take strategic and tactical steps forward, you improve your performance.
Both responsibility and initiative lead to the next benefit: growth.
Ownership Leads to Growth
Taking ownership means you step into the unknown.
Taking responsibility means adapting and learning from things that happen.
Taking initiative means planning and taking risk.
Both of these lend to your personal growth.
It’s that simple.
Building the Ownership Mindset
It is normal for our brains to run away from responsibility.
It feels safer when nothing is our fault.
But our power and performance lay in the life we own!
If you are struggling to build or maintain the ownership mindset, consider taking these steps:
1. Get clear on what you want
Write down your goals, what you want, what you don’t want, etc.
2. Create a plan of action
This is your power of initiative. What strategic actions do you need to take and what are the tactical actions you need to take? Write these down and put them on your calendar.
3. Look for learning opportunities
This is your power of responsibility. Tell yourself, “I am responsible. I will learn. I will adapt.” If things get tough, go back and remind yourself of everything you noted in #1. Your “why” is your fuel.
The Wrap Up
With an ownership mindset, you will be unstoppable.
Because YOU are the owner, YOU have the power to choose the steps to take.
Ownership leads to responsibility, initiative, and growth.
And, you can learn to adopt the ownership mindset by creating clarity, creating a plan, and looking for learning opportunities.
Be an owner and crush your goals.
Or be a renter and live on someone else’s terms.
I vote that you crush it.
Clark