{"id":354,"date":"2014-08-26T00:32:55","date_gmt":"2014-08-26T04:32:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.managementcenter.org\/?post_type=article&p=354"},"modified":"2025-07-14T21:39:49","modified_gmt":"2025-07-14T21:39:49","slug":"transfer-ownership-staff-members","status":"publish","type":"resources","link":"https:\/\/www.managementcenter.org\/resources\/transfer-ownership-staff-members\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Transfer and Instill Ownership"},"content":{"rendered":"

Imagine that you have a staff member who does a great job when you tell them what to do, but they always seem to be waiting for your direction. Now imagine that you have a staff person who not only executes well but also takes the initiative of driving their work. They catch and solve problems you\u2019re not even aware of, design process improvements, and find ways to get to better equity, sustainability, and results.<\/p>\n

Assuming that both people are a good fit for the role overall, what\u2019s the differentiating factor?<\/p>\n

If you find that your staff person is acting more like an implementer of tasks and less like the driver of their work, the issue might be one of ownership<\/em>. When we talk about ownership, we\u2019re not talking about proprietorship\u2014we\u2019re talking about someone\u2019s sense of responsibility and autonomy over their work. Ideally, we want everyone to feel empowered to move their work forward\u2014which includes having a clear vision of success, the initiative and ability to anticipate and solve problems, and a sense of accomplishment when the work is complete.<\/p>\n

Here are five tips for transferring, instilling, and affirming ownership of the work:<\/p>\n

1. Set meaningful roles and goals.<\/h3>\n

We sometimes see managers defining the roles on their team in ways that treat staff people as assistants or helpers (and not in the capital H MOCHA<\/a> way!). They create roles and goals that focus on specific activities rather than overall outcomes, such as asking an events coordinator to do X, Y, and Z, rather than saying, \u201cYou\u2019re responsible for ensuring that our events run smoothly\u201d or \u201cYour goal is to ensure that this year\u2019s conference gets an average satisfaction score of X% on logistics and that we increase the attendance of people with disabilities by Y%.\u201d<\/p>\n

This creates a highly problematic dynamic (especially when there are race, gender, or other identity differences) that gets in the way of authentic relationship-building. It also limits the role to only the approaches and tactics that the manager can think of (or prefers). An event coordinator who feels real ownership over their work might be empowered to come up with new and creative ways to get to the outcomes, potentially leading to better results in the long run.<\/p>\n

2. Try the \u201cyou\u2019re the CEO of ___\u201d concept.<\/h3>\n

To fully convey the overall responsibility you expect them to take for their roles, try this statement: \u201cYou\u2019re the CEO of ___.\u201d In other words, encourage your events coordinator to think of themself as the CEO of events logistics and your communications director to think of themself as the CEO of media relations. Better yet, have them come up with a CEO statement<\/a> in their own words! Whatever the statement is, they should feel proud of it and others should easily understand it. (Note: if the language of \u201cCEO\u201d rubs you the wrong way, replace it with \u201cboss,\u201d \u201ccaptain,\u201d or something else that strikes your fancy.)<\/p>\n

3. Be explicit about decision-making power.<\/h3>\n

Our first two tips focus on specifying what your staff person is responsible for and the things that are within their sphere of control<\/a>. To minimize confusion, balance that with transparency about where they do and don\u2019t have power\u2014and where they share it with you.<\/p>\n

To really transfer and instill ownership, be clear about the following:<\/p>\n