A Training Room Full of Managers… But Who Is Accountable?

“People need to take ownership.” We hear this sentence quite often. But here is the question: What are managers doing to enable ownership? This was the thought behind the second part of our WRI India learning journey. The first intervention focused on ownership and accountability for team members. But we didn’t want to stop there. Because asking employees to take ownership without examining the role of their managers is incomplete.

Managers can either become the biggest enablers of ownership… or the biggest barriers to it. Micromanagement. Fear of mistakes. Lack of clarity. Constant intervention. Decisions being taken away from people. Feedback that focuses only on what went wrong. All of these can quietly kill ownership. So the corresponding session for managers and leaders was built around their role in driving ownership. And yes, we stayed with the Sholay theme. Because sometimes a familiar metaphor allows people to discuss serious leadership issues without becoming defensive.

The session wasn’t about giving managers another checklist. It was about asking uncomfortable questions. Do I create space for people to make decisions? Do I intervene because the situation genuinely requires it, or because I don’t trust the person? Do I allow mistakes to become learning opportunities? Do I give people responsibility and then take back control? And perhaps the most important question: Am I asking for ownership from my team while behaving in ways that discourage it?

Leadership development becomes meaningful when the mirror turns towards the leader. Not the team.