Imagine the shift in mindset when you transition from a renter to a homeowner. This transformation vividly illustrates the leap from mere accountability to true ownership — a critical journey for leaders and managers aiming for excellence. When individuals rent an apartment, they’re not focused on “peripherals” like landscaping that could increase their building’s curb appeal. As renters, they’re simply accountable for keeping their apartment in good repair and paying their rent on time.

Fast forward to when they buy their first house. All of a sudden, they’re totally in charge, and they take ownership of making sure that every part of the property looks amazing.

What is the connection between this analogy and employee performance? In highly successful organizations, team members don’t just feel accountable for doing their jobs well: They take complete ownership in performing with excellence. Accountability, by itself, may cause a morale problem with people doing the bare minimum to meet the goal in spite of how they feel.

A culture of ownership, on the other hand, indicates that leaders have galvanized everyone toward a common mission, and team members are excited to give their all to achieve it. Everyone embraces three powerful words — “I am responsible” — with every project they advance.

The Candy Wrapper Scenario

Former Duke University basketball coach Mike Krzyzewki, also better known as Coach K, further illustrates the difference using the following scenario. The leader requires cleanliness and shares it with the team. Now, imagine a locker room with a stray candy wrapper on the floor. When individuals feel no ownership of their team’s values (level four on an ownership scale), everyone walks past that wrapper. At level three, players only pick up the wrapper when the people in charge are in the room.

At level two — or peer-to-peer accountability — players will pick up the wrapper only if other players are with them. At level one, the pinnacle that teams should strive for, individuals totally own the team’s standard of cleanliness. They will discard the litter even if they are alone.

Skilled Leaders Build Engaged “Owners”

Achieving that pinnacle requires skilled leadership. That’s because in most organizations, that universal feeling of ownership just isn’t there. According to the Corporate Leadership Council (now Gartner for HR) as many as 76% of employees could have higher engagement levels. How can leaders amp them up?

A “classic” Harvard Business School study offers some clues. In 1992, John Kotter and James Heskett finished research on the impact of corporate cultures on long-term financial performance. They followed multiple companies over 11 years and found that those with robust cultures that “facilitate[d] adaptation to a changing world” achieved an average 756% increase in net income. Those whose cultures lagged in this respect experienced an average 1% increase.

What made the cultures of the most successful companies so strong? They placed a high value on their people, encouraged each individual to act like a leader, and empowered them to change to meet new customer needs. In short, they fostered a culture of ownership.

How Trainers Can Help Leaders Steward Cultures of Ownership

Corporate trainers are in an excellent position to help leaders build similar cultures. Here are several best practices to share with these leaders:

• Cultivating core values — setting the leadership standard: Effective leaders cascade their organization’s mission, vision and core values throughout their organization.
• Fostering inclusion — making every team member count: Even before formal onboarding, great leaders make everyone feel that they are an important part of something bigger. They might send welcome gifts geared to new employees’ interests, schedule welcome calls from several team members, and include them in meaningful celebrations. For example, some leaders recognize an employee’s one-year anniversary by having every colleague choose one word to describe why that person is so special.
• Nurturing trust — building leadership through empathy and transparency: People want to advance the goals of those who not only value them — but with whom they can be open. Leaders who continuously check in with colleagues, are honest about what’s ahead, react positively to team suggestions, and handle the rough spots with empathy are well-positioned to keep their people close.
• Selective recruitment — hiring for cultural fit and potential: Using behavioral-based interviewing is a good way to probe below the surface, and ensure that prospective employees will thrive within a particular environment. A good example of a behavioral-based question is “Tell me about a problem you had with a coworker and how you handled it.”
• Leading by example — the power of modeling and training: If leaders are championing change, they need to model it themselves. This might entail some corporate-wide retraining. If so, leaders should complete the training in advance of their colleagues, and then consistently model what they’ve learned.

Requiring training not only reinforces the feeling of shared ownership; it shows employees that companies value their contribution and want to help maximize it. Indeed, research indicates that only 20% of workers feel they have the expertise to be effective in the future, according to Gartner. In this context, corporations who commit to training their people make themselves more desirable employers and have a better chance of maintaining their engagement.

• Effective communication — the key to leadership success: One of the most important ways leaders do this is through one-to-one meetings with individual team members. Weekly or biweekly meetings offer the perfect venue to check in, learn how everyone is feeling and what help they might need, and ensure that their work remains on track. Meetings also offer an opportunity to address any gaps in a positive and encouraging way while still reiterating expectations.
• Celebrating progress — fueling team morale and alignment: An important corollary to this is, “celebrate, celebrate, celebrate!” Start every day by sharing a positive comment about the team’s progress. Set many short-term goals and seek out every chance to celebrate their achievement. All this keeps everyone aligned toward a common vision and feeling good about their part in it.
• Empowering autonomy — supporting teams in risk-taking and learning: Leaders who trust their people to push themselves forward are also prepared to help them learn from mistakes without value judgements. This gives them the freedom to keep “digging deeply” — harnessing their passion and skills to maintain their organization’s momentum.

Leaders who master the art of stewarding a culture of ownership are key to their organization’s future success. Training is the bridge to making it happen.