Earlier this year, I posted a blog about how much work it is to hire someone into a role, even if it’s a position that already existed. Now I’m going to give you a tip on a universal thing that you can do that will make your boss’s life easier - you need to take ownership of your job.
Some people come to work expecting to be told what to do daily and need direction and are basically high maintenance. Others can do their core job but cannot or will not do one bit more or faster. Others will go above and beyond and be able to pick up tasks that may be boring, overwhelming or just annoying.
This is the employee that I am looking for, the one that I want working for me and with me.
I want a trusting relationship with that employee. This is also the employee that will be promoted and given opportunities. Taking ownership will set you apart from your colleagues. Sure it’s true that this is the person who will be looked at first if your company is growing. This is true especially if your company is facing layoffs; remember that someone is choosing who to lay off. They will always pick someone who is independent over someone who needs supervision.
People sometimes misinterpret what ownership means in the work context. I want you to be completely comfortable with doing all of the tasks that are in your job description and announcing that you are responsible for those tasks. Then do them within the allotted time frame. Okay, that seems simplistic.
What it means to other people is the important part. That you are reliable, can do your portion of the work within a deadline and you are competent. You are trustworthy. It may not be terribly exciting to publicly announce that you are going to do your work every single day in the daily stand-up or huddle. However, the commitment is what you are demonstrating. Passively nodding when you are assigned a task is not taking ownership.
Being able to take on a job and repeat back to your boss the task while adding on a detail like, “I’ll draft an email and bring it for your review” if that task is normally outside of your duties. Stating that you know what the task is and understand what needs to be done. (You should also be giving your full attention to these types of meetings - no thousand yard stares or glances at text messages on your phone. Everyone notices.). You should confidently take on the task - meaning that you know that you can do a job that your boss asks you to do, even though you may not have done that specific job previously.
What you are doing when you are able to radiate confidence is relieve someone else’s anxiety. Remember that we’re all human and have ten thousand other things - everyone is going through something. If I ask you to do something and I feel like you’ve said “Don’t worry boss, I’ve got this” - well, I can breathe a sigh of relief and go worry about the other 9,999 things on my plate. And if I trust you once, twice, then you’ve become my go-to person. You’re the person I can trust to take care of tasks and solve problems. You’ll have more opportunities because I’ll be willing to invest in someone who is willing to step up to help me.
Now if I, as the boss, don’t reward you for stepping up, then you should feel free to find opportunities elsewhere and find a boss who will appreciate you. A job exists because the institution has an unmet need and work that needs to be done. The institution will find someone else, so you should never stay with a job because you think that they will fall apart without you (if they are that dependent on you and haven’t treated you well, they deserve to fall apart without you).
So let's talk about the downsides of taking ownership. You have to strike a balance here. You don’t want to agree to take on every single issue in your department. You want to have a life and not work 60 hours a week (or even 41 hours, honestly). But you do want to be seen as the person who can complete tasks, even the boring ones, and find solutions to persistent problems. You also may receive benefits that may not be immediately obvious. By taking on tasks that are outside of your normal workload you may be building a network of connections within your institution because the tasks force you to interact with people that you normally would not contact. Be judicious in agreeing to take on projects.
Another caveat: if you jump in and take on projects and tasks that everyone else is avoiding, then ask yourself if you are in danger of becoming the boss’s brown-noser. Again, the balance is important. You want to be above gossip and pettiness. You are using these opportunities to better your career. Be analytical when taking ownership and don’t use it to push other people down. Karma.
Here’s an example from my own life:
I personally dislike giving people “bad” news with a subtext, such as “that software doesn't work the way you think it works” (i.e., you don’t know what you bought) or “you need to do a big fat risk assessment before you can even consider changing your process” (i.e., you have a boatload of work to do because you’ve been avoiding it for years). It’s a bit of tough love that a consultant sometimes needs to say because they are paying me to say it. I’ve created a number of email templates to help take the sting out of that news so that my message is consistent and I don’t overthink it.
However, my colleagues know that I get squirrely when I have to inform people of their misunderstandings and they will step up when they see my introverted self get uncomfortable when saying that I have to send the email. I remember every. single. time. that someone else has offered to send that email. It relieves my anxiety knowing that my colleagues have my back and that it will get done. While that task may seem like a small thing to them, it is huge to me, and I can focus on the things that I am good at.
You should be keeping track of all of the times that you go above and beyond for your boss and your team, especially if there are concrete metrics that go along with those tasks. Make sure you keep track of them in our handy tool Mid-Year Job Evaluation Tool so that you can remind your boss just how many times you took ownership.
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