Ownership is the key to involvement.

When we teach involvement we do so through trying to get team members to take ownership of initiatives. Through this, we hope that team members start taking ownership of the company aims, objectives and vision.

So, your aims and expectations as a leader are that each member of your team will take ownership of company initiatives and own the same vision and drive as you.

Sounds like a lot to ask of an employee, right?

Develop ‘Future Owners’

To achieve this level of involvement from each member of your team, your management style needs to reflect the value each of them hold for your organisation. You can’t expect an employee who has low responsibility and limited autonomy to get fully involved with their work.

Delegation is usually seen as a way of freeing up your time to focus on more important things. Instead, how about thinking of it from the other side? Delegation gives you an opportunity to develop your team. If you delegate tasks based on ‘what would benefit ‘team member A’ most?’ rather than, ‘what don’t I have time to do?’ you’ll start to increase productivity, ownership and involvement across the board.

Thoughtful delegation is the only way to encourage and cultivate ownership within a team. If you are trying to cultivate this ownership, you need to start treating each of your team members as possible future owners of your organisation. With this mind set, you will start delegating tasks that will cultivate responsibility, accountability and ownership. Even if that team member leaves two years later, the process itself will have ensured that, for those two years, they were fully involved with their work.

How many possible future owners have you got in your team? Do you delegate with this in mind?

Well, maybe you should start….