bcg blog

Owning It

As a high school athletic director, I had to hire and fire several coaches over my five year tenure. Both are difficult and bring their own unique challenges, but I always felt hiring was the more difficult of the two to get right. Firing was usually pretty clear. Oddly enough, there is one characteristic that shines a bright light on both scenarios - ownership.

Hiring is more difficult because you don’t know. You ask questions, check references, and observe behaviors; but at the end of the day you’re guessing. Of course, you are trying to gather information on a number of factors like knowledge, character, humility, personality … but, if you’re wise, a willingness to own all aspects of the position should be of the highest priority.

I don’t want to make it sound like firing someone is easy. It’s certainly not, but it is often more clear than hiring. Like hiring, there are a number of factors to be considered when dismissing someone. I’ve found many of those factors to be coachable and not a singular reason for termination. One consistent exception is the willingness to own the situation - and there is no guessing needed. Just ask questions. If you get excuses and blame, there’s a good chance they need to go.

If you can’t own it, you can’t lead.

Why Should We Care?
Let’s focus on two critical aspects of ownership that are paramount to excellence - impact and agency. 

Impact is the degree to which you affect someone or something. All of our impact is dependent on us believing that we matter - our presence, our thoughts, and our actions. It all matters. It makes a difference. If we don’t believe that, then what’s the point? We must own our impact. This is where everyone’s impact starts

Beyond that, leaders that own their impact are aware of how their actions affect others. It’s not random, happenstance, or luck. Leaders that own their impact are intentional with every interaction. They believe a life could change at any moment.

Agency is a sense of control - of our thoughts and our actions. Agency is also a belief in yourself to be able to handle any situation. If we have agency, we believe we’re going to be okay regardless of what is thrown at us. The situation doesn’t matter to leaders with agency. They will own it no matter what. They make it happen.

For clarity, the opposite of agency is victimhood. People with a victim mindset have no belief in themselves. They are always at the mercy of others or circumstances. They own nothing. They are indifferent about their impact and unaware of their agency. 

Victims are allergic to owning.

REAL TALK - Action Steps
We can take a huge step towards taking ownership simply by eliminating a victim mindset. Take a look at the list below to see if there are any actions you could stop doing in your life that are encouraging you to think like a victim.

• Stop Complaining 
  
  • Complaining is an attempt to dismiss ownership, to relieve yourself of full responsibility. Make a commitment to go two days without complaining - about anything. In order to do that, you will be forced to modify your inner voice. Your words are a reflection of your thoughts. If you don’t change your thoughts, you can’t change your words. 
    

• Stop Making Excuses
  
  • An excuse is a direct effort to escape ownership. They never help and they certainly never move you towards ownership. The only person you make feel good is yourself, which fades quickly as soon as you realize the trivialness of the relief it created. If you want to take a huge step towards owning it, simply eliminate excuses from all parts of your life. It’s a habit that grows itself.
    

• Stop Moping
  
  • Moping is just the non-verbal version of complaining. Your body language screams so make sure it’s saying what you want it to say. People that are owning it don’t wither to the environment or circumstances. They don’t display their feelings like a billboard in an attempt to garner sympathy from others. They are intentional and deliberate with their body language. Their ‘cool jackets’ are in the closet too.
    

Leadership starts with owning your impact and agency. Unfortunately, for many, it ends there as well. It’s simple, not easy. Take full ownership of everything that happens in your life and things will stop happening to you and start happening for you. 

Checkout Surrender the Outcome on Amazon and order The Score That Matters with Ryan Hawk & Brook Cupps. The latest blog from Blue Collar Grit can be found here!