Give Them Ownership Before They’re Ready

One of the easiest mistakes we make when developing leaders is waiting too long.

We wait until they have enough experience.

We wait until they’ve proven themselves.

We wait until they know exactly what to do.

We wait until we’re confident they won’t make a mistake.

And somewhere in all that waiting, we miss one of the most important parts of leadership development:

People need ownership before they feel completely ready for it.

That doesn’t mean handing someone the keys and walking away. It means giving them something meaningful to protect, improve, or lead—and allowing the responsibility itself to help develop them.

Ownership Changes the Way People See the Team

Throughout The Plus One Culture, Jake begins to understand that leadership isn’t primarily about a title. It’s about recognizing what needs to be done and accepting responsibility for it.

One of the ideas that emerges is simple:

If something matters to you, you take care of it.

That is ownership.

When someone is simply following instructions, their question is often:

What am I supposed to do?

But when they begin taking ownership, the question changes:

What does this need from me?

That is a significant shift.

Instead of waiting for someone else to solve the problem, they begin looking for ways to improve it. Instead of walking past something because it isn’t technically their responsibility, they start recognizing that being part of the team makes it their responsibility.

That mindset rarely develops because someone attended a leadership meeting.

It develops because someone trusted them with something that mattered.

Give Them Something Worth Protecting

In the book, the idea of The Keeper of the Mound represents more than maintaining a baseball field.

The mound matters.

Someone has to notice when it needs attention. Someone has to care enough to fix it. Someone has to understand that taking care of it affects the people who will use it next.

Eventually, that responsibility has to be passed to someone else.

That is where leadership development becomes uncomfortable.

The person receiving the responsibility may not do everything exactly the way you would.

They may overlook something.

They may make a mistake.

They may need to ask questions.

Good.

Because if you only give people ownership once you know they can perform the responsibility perfectly, you aren’t developing leaders.

You’re assigning tasks to people who have already been developed.

There is a difference.

Responsibility Reveals What Coaching Cannot

You can talk to someone about leadership for months and still not know how they will respond when something actually belongs to them.

Give them ownership, and you begin to find out.

Will they prepare?

Will they communicate?

Will they notice the details?

Will they ask for help when they need it?

Will they take responsibility when something goes wrong?

Will they blame someone else?

Will they leave the situation better than they found it?

These are difficult things to discover when someone is always operating underneath another leader.

At some point, you have to give them room to lead.

That might mean allowing a young player to organize part of practice.

It might mean asking an employee to run a meeting.

It could mean giving someone responsibility for onboarding a new teammate.

It might mean putting a potential leader in charge of a project, process, event, customer, or standard.

The responsibility doesn’t have to be enormous.

It just has to be real.

Ownership Has to Include the Possibility of Failure

This is where many experienced leaders struggle.

We say we want to develop people, but the moment they begin doing something differently than we would, we take control back.

We correct too quickly.

We step in too early.

We solve the problem before they have an opportunity to wrestle with it.

Sometimes that protects the outcome—but prevents the development.

There are obviously situations where a leader must intervene. Standards still matter. Customers matter. Safety matters. The organization matters.

But not every mistake requires rescue.

Sometimes the better question is:

What happens if I let them work through this?

They may struggle.

They may have to make an uncomfortable phone call.

They may have to admit they were wrong.

They may have to go back and fix something.

That is often where leadership begins to take root.

Accountability Still Matters

Giving someone ownership does not mean lowering the standard.

Actually, ownership without accountability isn’t development at all.

The message shouldn’t be:

Do whatever you want.

It should be:

This is yours. I trust you with it. Here is the standard. I’m here when you need me. Now take care of it.

Then allow them to carry some of the weight.

That combination matters.

Trust gives them room to grow. Standards give them something to grow toward. Accountability teaches them that ownership means something.

One of the recurring lessons in The Plus One Culture is:

Standards are standards because someone stands up for them even when it costs something.

A developing leader needs opportunities to become that someone.

Stop Waiting for Them to Look Like a Leader

Potential leaders rarely look completely ready.

That is why they are potential leaders.

Someone saw something in many of the best leaders long before those leaders saw it in themselves.

Then they gave them an opportunity.

A responsibility.

A problem.

A team.

A project.

A mound.

Something that communicated:

I believe you can take care of this.

And something begins to happen when people realize someone trusts them with something meaningful.

They stand a little taller.

They pay closer attention.

They start noticing things they previously walked past.

They begin understanding that other people are depending on them.

Eventually, ownership becomes more than a responsibility they were given.

It becomes part of who they are.

That progression is captured in one of the central ideas behind The Plus One Culture:

Ownership earned trust. Trust created responsibility.

But there is another side to it.

Sometimes responsibility has to come first.

Someone has to give a person the opportunity to own something so they can demonstrate that they are worthy of greater trust.

That is leadership development.

Give Them the Ball

If you have someone in your organization who you believe has leadership potential, don’t only tell them you see something in them.

Give them something.

Something real.

Something that matters.

Set the standard. Explain why it matters. Give them the resources they need.

Then give them enough room to figure some of it out themselves.

Coach them when they struggle.

Hold them accountable when they fall short.

Recognize them when they take ownership.

And when they demonstrate they can carry that responsibility, give them a little more.

Because eventually, every leader has to learn that leadership is not about waiting until you feel ready.

It is about recognizing that something matters—and choosing to take care of it.

If we want more leaders, we have to stop waiting for people to become leaders before we give them opportunities to lead.

Sometimes you have to hand them the ball before they’re completely ready to carry it.