Starting with the Little Things: Ownership at Work

“Sometimes, little things make a big difference...” ― Nino Varsimashvili

It’s not just a great memorable quote from the movie “Little Things” but something that I never thought of until I got an opportunity to attend the #ARMpreneur programme and I am glad I was a part of it. In the training, we looked at the value of Intrapreneurship and explored ways to develop our skills to ease up our lifestyle; professional and personal both. Many times career/professional growth starts right where you are rather than looking for a new job, it starts with “taking ownership at work”– one of the critical lessons I learned. What do you mean by taking ownership? Ownership is all about taking initiative. It means we are accountable for our actions and our performance at work. The first step is “self analysis”, ask yourself questions about your performance whether you are an individual contributor or a team leader. We take ownership when we believe that taking action is not someone else’s responsibility. We, as an individual, are accountable for the quality and timelines of an outcome, even when you’re working with others. Here, I share the secret of taking ownership leading to success.

The six D’s secret:

Desire

We should have the desire to perform at our best. This desire constantly helps us to better our performance, learning, growth and development. Desire to succeed sets a high benchmark for yourself and the team which motivates everyone to achieve it.

Drive

Having a strong drive means being able to get things done. The intent is to be productive and we are ourselves responsible for completion of our work and task. The most successful people in life are the ones who have the drive to do more and better.

Determination

In our professional and personal life, we come across hurdles/obstacles. As much as we try to avoid it, the likelihood is it will still happen. The successful ones are those who overcome anything positively that comes in their way.

Dedication

Dedication comes when we understand our organisation’s mission and identify our role/contribution in it. Every organisation has resources that play different roles which contributes to the overall success of the organisation. To be at top of our performance/work, is to be dedicated to what we are doing and being prepared to do extra ,if required.

Discipline

Self-discipline and focus are vital for individual productivity. Distractions are everywhere. Whether it’s social media or frequent questions from well-meaning colleagues, it can be super-easy to be thrown of course. Sometimes we have to say ‘no’ (and to say ‘no’ in the right way) in order to safeguard our own productivity.

Dreams

Everyone has dreams and we all need dreams to empower us. Its helps us to move forward and achieve what we want to. Dreams backed up with hard work makes any dream worth having a reality. So, dream big and dream often.