Taking Ownership of Your Work

What does taking ownership look like in the corporate setting? The concept of taking ownership of your work goes beyond mere responsibility. Individuals who take ownership have a sense of pride in their achievements, a commitment to continuous improvement, and an innovative spirit that drives them to make decisions in the best interests of their company and its clients.

Employees who own their work know when to step beyond their defined role and embrace accountability and initiative. Individuals who embody these core principles have greater job satisfaction and control over their professional aspirations.

Consider these strategies you can use to take ownership of your work.

• Remember why you chose your job. Reminding yourself of the goals and career aspirations that led you to apply for and accept a job offer can help you remotivate yourself about your duties and help you understand your job's purpose in your life and future career. 
• Set goals for yourself. Setting professional goals gives you specific standards to uphold and career milestones to tailor your work efforts toward.
• Ask for constructive feedback. Instead of waiting for performance and peer reviews, regularly ask for constructive feedback as a standard part of your work routine to help you determine what areas to improve.
• Continue investing in yourself. Motivating yourself to improve your professional knowledge and workplace skills is key to taking ownership at work. Continuous self-improvement is a vital aspect of ownership, enabling you to contribute more effectively to your team and company.
• Be proactive instead of reactive. Being proactive instead of reactive can encompass many scenarios. It might look like volunteering to lead presentations, taking on additional assignments, or switching to a different team role for a project. Being proactive means believing you can instigate change—and demonstrating to your managers that you are ready for responsibility.
• Acknowledge mistakes and deal with them responsibly. Honesty lays the groundwork for trust and respect. Openly acknowledge errors you make without shifting blame. Take steps to rectify the mistake and then reflect on what went wrong and why. This introspection is crucial for personal and professional development.
• Identify opportunities. Keep your eyes open for opportunities that help you get closer to career milestones. Ideally, these opportunities will contain three key elements: something that has a career benefit to you, something important to your boss, and something that will positively impact your organization. Some examples of this might include looking for office inefficiencies that stress people out and slow down productivity and brainstorming solutions. It might involve investigating feedback patterns and implanting what colleagues or customers are saying they want. Be alert about upcoming projects and develop a mindset that embraces change as an opportunity.
• Practice managing up. Managing up is a process employees can take to get to know their superiors, including their management styles, communication preferences, and expectations. It's a helpful way to take ownership at work because it allows you to pursue opportunities to gain more work experience. It also encourages employees to develop a positive working relationship with their manager as they build trust.
• Develop your self-awareness. Self-awareness is how you understand yourself, such as your learning style and personality traits. By understanding your habits and needs in-depth, you can set improvement goals and adjust your work to accommodate your strengths and weaknesses. 
• Cultivate resilience. Encountering setbacks is part of the journey. Resilience in the face of challenges shows commitment to your role and a strong sense of ownership.

You owe it to yourself to be deliberate about your life and career. By taking responsibility for your work, you will significantly improve your career trajectory—and your personal and professional advancement will increase exponentially. Embracing a lifestyle of ownership enables you to seek out learning new opportunities and embrace challenges; it also leads to greater fulfillment and accomplishment as your job satisfaction soars!

Are you looking for your next career step? Perhaps temp work is the next right thing for you! At Career Concepts, we've been helping the right people find the right job for over 50 years. Contact us today, and let's get started!