1. Accountability versus Ownership
Concentra’s growth starts with the growth of each one of us. Either you will manage the culture or it will manage you.
Culture is the combination of accountability and ownership. To drive growth you need to understand both.
Accountability is a management system. Managers hold their direct reports accountable. Direct reports should know
how to demonstrate accountability to their manager. It includes:
• Roles • Feedback • Evaluation • Recognition
• Expectations • Measurement • Rewards • Consequence
Accountability is the extrinsic side of things – carrots and sticks. What are the carrots? What are the sticks? Is there a
balance of both? Are they both daily tools or just ceremonial props? If you have an accountability issue it’s really a
manager’s problem; your system is flawed, has a kink, or is broken.
Ownership is an environment. It’s not something you can require of anyone. People will willingly own or not own a task.
It’s reflective of how they feel about their work. What managers can do is breed an environment of ownership where
colleagues are more likely to seize and take ownership. This includes:
• Challenges – how do you challenge people when you first assign tasks?
• Connection – are they connected to the community of employees, customers, the industry?
• Love – do they feel cared for? Who is looking out for them?
• Collaboration – can they improve the way they do their tasks by working with others?
• Opportunity – how can they grow in their role
• Autonomy / Choice – a sense of choice opens the door to creativity and innovation
• Meaning – did each person make a difference at the end of every day?
• Fun – was the journey enjoyable while striving toward each daily destination
Ownership is the intrinsic side of things; how we feel about our work. That is when we will willingly own our work.
People choose to be an owner. The atmosphere you create will determine the product you produce.
To optimize performance, both systems are important and necessary but are distinctly different managerial actions.
Clarifying roles on the Accountability side will not necessarily challenge or connect people on the Ownership side to the
tasks of that role. Likewise, having fun will not improve accountability. So managers must delicately navigate their
system of accountability so that it does not destroy the ecosystem of the Ownership environment.
So where do we go from here? Have a discussion with your colleagues.
1. Do you spend more time on activities that build accountability or ownership?
2. What’s one thing you could do better to build accountability?
3. What’s one practice you could adopt that would help build an ownership environment?
Management is a social act. It occurs “out there.” Be mindful that word choice matters. Conversations matter. How we
talk about things and how we label things and categorize things does matter. So make sure that you are clear on the
difference between accountability and ownership because that will allow you to work on improving both.
Bottom line: Issues that erode relationships erodes performance. Drive growth by driving accountability and ownership.