From Passive to Proactive: How to Create a Culture of Ownership on Your Leadership Team

Aug 5, 2025 | 0 comments

When leadership feels more like babysitting than collaboration, there’s a problem.

Too often, COOs and other senior leaders carry the mental weight of every initiative — not because they want to, but because others won’t step up.

You don’t just need team members who do the work. You need leaders who own the outcome.

Here’s how to shift your leadership team from passive executors to proactive owners.

Why Ownership Matters at the Leadership Level

When leaders don’t take full responsibility for their areas, it creates a ripple effect across the org chart. The COO becomes a bottleneck, team initiatives stall, and culture weakens.

On the flip side, a culture of ownership allows:

  • Faster decision-making
  • Stronger cross-functional alignment
  • Clearer accountability and expectations
  • Higher engagement and better results

In high-performing companies, leaders don’t wait for permission — they take the lead, solve problems, and align their teams with the company’s vision.

1. Stop Rewarding Firefighting

It’s easy to celebrate the leader who jumps in at the last minute to “save the day.” But if all your praise and recognition goes to the firefighters, you’ll never build a team of planners.

Instead, praise foresight. Highlight the leaders who anticipate problems early, prevent crises, and keep things running smoothly — even if their work isn’t flashy.

Ownership isn’t about drama. It’s about discipline.

2. Clarify What “Ownership” Actually Looks Like

If you want your leaders to take ownership, you need to define it clearly.

Ownership might include:

  • Making decisions without escalation
  • Taking responsibility for outcomes, not just tasks
  • Proactively communicating progress and blockers
  • Thinking cross-functionally and anticipating ripple effects

Talk about ownership in your 1:1s. Make it part of your leadership development process. And when someone demonstrates it well, call it out publicly.

3. Shift the Default From “Delegate Up” to “Decide Down”

In many companies, when something is unclear or risky, the default is to escalate up. But in ownership cultures, the default is to decide down — empowering the people closest to the issue to make the call.

This doesn’t mean abandoning accountability. It means creating clarity on:

  • What decisions can be made at which levels
  • When escalation is appropriate
  • How to create a safe environment for smart risk-taking

The COO’s job isn’t to answer every question. It’s to build a system where the right people can answer them without hesitation.

4. Remove Fear of Being Wrong

Many leaders stay passive because they’re afraid of making a mistake. That fear kills initiative.

To create a culture of ownership, normalize learning through action. Coach your leaders through failures instead of punishing them. Celebrate calculated risks that didn’t work — if they were aligned with company values and well thought out.

Ownership grows when people feel trusted, not judged.

5. Model Ownership Yourself

As COO, your behavior sets the tone. If you own your priorities, communicate clearly, take responsibility, and avoid blame-shifting — others will follow.

If you micromanage, defer hard decisions, or constantly second-guess your team, they’ll learn to do the same.

Want a team of owners? Be the first.

Creating a Leadership Culture of Ownership Starts With You

Culture isn’t built in memos — it’s built in conversations, decisions, and the small moments leaders model every day.

If you want to build a proactive, aligned leadership team that drives the business forward — start by raising the bar on what ownership looks like.

Give your leaders clarity. Give them confidence. And hold them accountable to step up.

Want to accelerate leadership growth in your organization?

Invest in your leaders.

Give your leadership team the tools, frameworks, and confidence they need to take full ownership — and drive results at the highest level.

Learn more at https://investinyourleaders.com/?affiliate=mrkt

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Written By Cameron Herold

Written By Cameron Herold

Cameron Herold is known around the world as THE CEO WHISPERER. He is the mastermind behind hundreds of company's exponential growth. Cameron's built a dynamic consultancy: his current clients include a "Big 4" wireless carrier and a monarchy. What do his clients say they like most about him? He isn't a theory guy they like that Cameron speaks only from experience. He earned his reputation as the CEO Whisperer by guiding his clients to double their profit and double their revenue in just three years or less. Cameron is a top-rated international speaker and has been paid to speak in 26 countries. He is also the top-rated lecturer at EO/MIT's Entrepreneurial Masters Program and a powerful and effective speaker at Chief Executive Officer and Chief Operating Officer leadership events around the world.

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