Ownership is one of the leadership principles that is required to make it at Amazon.
The ownership principle is stated as: Leaders are owners. They think long term and don’t sacrifice long-term value for short-term results. They act on behalf of the entire company, beyond just their own team. They never say “that’s not my job.”
This principles is one of the many that we are evaluated and promoted against. It’s used to make business decisions and prioritize work. It’s even an important principles we hire people against.
But have you ever thought about how this principle might apply directly to you in your own life? If a leader is an owner, are you really owning your career and goals?
If your goal is to get promoted, how can you show more ownership in this? I’ve coached so many people that are annoyed because their manager keeps changing and they feel like it’s pushing back their promotion timeline. But what would an owner say?
Why is your manager changing a problem? How can you better own your promotion? If you are frustrated your manager doesn’t have your work history in order to write a doc, be an owner and write your own doc. Create your own business case for why the time is right. Figure out why they are hesitant to put your doc up for promotion and be confident in telling them why you disagree.
Or maybe your goal is to change job functions. You can keep having coffee chats with people and looking at open positions, or you can start acting like an owner. What would an owner do if they wanted to learn something new or change jobs?
Maybe you start offering to help on projects in the other job function or take a class on the weekends to learn a new skill. An owner would not wait around for the perfect opportunity and the perfect time. They would keep the long-term goal in mind and start taking massive action to figure out how to make the switch.
Or maybe you are so overwhelmed and stressed out because you have too much to do at work. How could you act more like an owner?
You could keep freaking out and getting more anxious, or you could do something about it. Maybe you talk to you manager about moving deadlines or reprioritizing. Or maybe you ask for help or stop micro managing certain elements of the project.
Moral of the story, ask yourself how well you are doing at owning your career. How could you act as a better owner in reaching your goals? How could you stop blaming other people and things outside of your control and start taking back ownership of yourself?
You got this!
Want help applying this to your specific situation? Let’s jump on the phone and figure it out together. Grab time on my calendar.
