OWNERSHIP

Do you feel responsible within your position and take initiatives? Or do you wait and let others take the lead? This depends on the ownership you show.

What is ownership?

Ownership is feeling accountability and taking responsibility. When an employee takes ownership, he or she will be concerned with what is going well and what is not, taking initiatives and tracking improvements. Ownership is a form of intrinsic motivation. Here, an employee does not have to be constantly urged to perform a task, but instead takes responsibility for the task. Often a task is done before it is even asked. This stems from curiosity and a certain standard the employee wants to meet. Employees with high levels of ownership also radiate confidence to colleagues: I take action, keep my word and take responsibility for my actions. This, in turn, also creates a more positive organizational culture.

4 characteristics of ownership

Although ownership is a feeling, there are some characteristics that describe ownership:

1. Sense of responsibility: when someone feels responsible, that person is more likely to also care for it, want to control it, and that person often automatically tends to improve it.
2. Sense of identity: an employee shows more ownership when he or she feels it belongs to his or her identity. An employee performs the function or carries out an activity as he or she can do on his or her own.
3. Sense of being accountable: when you are responsible for something, you also want the improvements and results to be visible to others and for them to hold you accountable as well.
4. Sense of self-worth: an employee must also have a sense of self-worth and believe that he or she also has the skills to perform the role he or she is performing.

Why is ownership important?

Ownership is an important part of sustainable employability and interfaces with personal leadership. Personal leadership is about taking control of your own life, while ownership is about taking responsibility. And when an employee is sustainably employable, he or she experiences more happiness at workhe or she is more inspired and more productive and absenteeism is lower.

Encouraging ownership

Ownership can be fostered both by the employee himself and by the organization in which he or she works.

Tips for taking ownership

• Be proactive, come up with ideas.
• Be involved in the organization and your work.
• When you have completed a project, take time to analyze the results. What went well and what can be improved?

Tips to encourage ownership among employees

• Notice when something has improved.
• Give employee space for own interpretation.
• Trust employees, rather than constantly monitoring them.
• Show employees that their work is valuable.

Increase ownership within your organization

Do you also want to increase employee ownership and thereby increase the sustainable employability of employees? paraDIGMA groep is happy to help you. Our goal is to make your organization future-proof. This requires an integrated approach to people and work. Please feel free to contact us for more information.

Want to learn more about sustainable employability and everything related to it? Then check out one of the other topics.