🛑 Stop Doing Your Team’s Work: How to Build Team Ownership and Accountability

Imagine leaving the office at 5 PM knowing your team delivered, not because you rescued them, but because they actually owned their work. That feeling? Pure freedom.

But how can you make this happen… for you and your team?

Because today, you feel like you’re carrying the weight of the entire team on your shoulders. Late nights, last-minute emails, and fixing mistakes you didn’t make. Does that sound familiar?

If that’s you, this series: Accountability in Action are here to save your sanity.

Let me share a little story… that might, just might seem familiar to you.

Meet Sara.

Every time her team stumbled, she swooped in like a capeless superhero, fixing reports, sending emails, rewriting presentations. And her team? They learned: “Don’t worry—Sara will handle it.”

Sound familiar? This is leader-enabled dependency, and it silently erodes initiative, accountability, and confidence.

But you don’t have to have those ‘Sara moments.’

Stop carrying your team’s workload alone.

If your team treats deadlines like suggestions… it’s time for a wake-up call. 🚨 Let’s fix accountability so you can stop firefighting and start leading.
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Accountability in Action

When leaders want our employees to take ownership and be accountable for their work, we have to first look in the mirror.

Here’s what I mean…  

In a research report titled: “We Hold Ourselves Accountable: we learn that… “leaders who repeatedly rescue their teams create dependency loops that decrease initiative and ownership. When you do the work, you reward not doing it. (source: Stewart, 2021)

Yikes!

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While this hurts… there is a lot of truth here.  Think of it this way… if your leader jumped in every time, you did not complete a project on time, or made a mistake, would you believe you ‘owned’ the work? 

No… and that’s exactly what your employees think when we as leaders jump in and do their work. 

So, the big lesson for you and me is this… we create team accountability that drives results when we stop doing their work and ‘hold’ them accountable.

Sounds simple… but it takes discipline to put this into practice. And to help you make this shift in your leadership, here are three steps you can take now to put accountable in action with your team:

Here are Three Steps to Fix It:

1. Stop Solving. Start Coaching. Hands off the rescue rope, leader! Instead of jumping in like a superhero, ask: ‘What’s your plan?’. Guide don’t swoop—your cape can take a break.

2. Redirect Responsibility. Give them the ball and watch them run with it. Say something like: ‘I trust you with this—circle back by 4 PM with your solution.’

You’re not dumping the hot potato—you’re handing them the keys to the car. Make ownership clear.

3. Normalize Struggle. When your team struggles, that does not mean they are failing. Struggling is actually the ‘spicy seasoning’ in the recipe of growth.

So, don’t hand out participation trophies for trying, cheer your team on for experimenting, learning, and showing up ready to take a swing.

Your Struggle is Real

Most leaders struggle with holding their team accountable because they are either afraid, they team won’t like them or they think it’s just easier to ‘fix’ the work themselves (because they can do it better anyway… right?) 

Wrong.

Your invisible superhero cape is suffocating you so, hang it up. Give yourself permission to lead and hold you team accountable for their work… because they just might surprise you.

I’m cheering 📣 for you!

P.S. ➡️ Listen to the Podcast here

PS: For more strategies that actually work, grab Books 1 & 2 of The Valuable Leader series and turn dependency into ownership.

• Book 1: The Valuable Leader: 7 Steps to Greater Growth, Value, and Influence – discover the framework to show up as a leader who inspires and drives results.

• Book 2: The Valuable Leader Communicates: 7 Keys to Unlock Your Voice and Connect Better With Others – learn the communication strategies that separate bosses from leaders.