Ownership: The One Thing You Can’t Fake as a Leader

There’s one thing that separates real leaders from people who just have titles, rank, or authority:

Ownership.

Not the buzzword version. Not the corporate-speak, leadership-seminar, poster-on-the-wall version. I’m talking about the deep, gut-level kind. The kind that makes you raise your hand when it all goes wrong and say, “That’s on me.”

I’ve led men and women in the Navy for 21 years. And I’ve sat in rooms with executives, entrepreneurs, and teams who want to talk about strategy, performance, communication, culture — all the usual suspects. But if there’s no ownership in the room, none of that other stuff matters. Without ownership, you’re just playing leadership. You’re not doing it.

Here’s the brutal truth: most people don’t want to own their mistakes. They want to explain them. Justify them. Blame something. Anything. The market. The team. The process. Timing. Their boss. Their childhood. Their horoscope.

Real leaders don’t do that.

Ownership means you take responsibility for everything in your lane. The good, the bad, the embarrassing. You don’t get to cherry-pick what you're proud of and dodge what makes you uncomfortable. You take it all. You own your decisions, your team’s performance, your communication (or lack of it), your failure to set expectations, your poor follow-through — everything.

You don’t need a badge or a degree to be a leader. But you damn sure need ownership. Because when people see you take full accountability without flinching, they trust you. They follow you. Not because you’re perfect, but because you’re real.

In my firm, we don’t sugarcoat leadership. We don’t coddle executives or dance around the truth. If you want to grow as a leader, you’ve got to get used to saying the hardest sentence in the English language: “This is my fault.”

We coach with this at the core. Whether we’re working with senior leaders, middle managers, or rising talent, we hammer this home: if you don’t own it, you can’t lead it. Period. Full stop.

You want to build a high-performing culture? Own the example you set.
You want more trust from your team? Own your communication gaps.
You want better results? Own the systems you built, the hires you made, and the standards you enforce — or don’t.

And if you’re blaming your team more than you’re owning your leadership? You’re the problem. Not them.

Here’s the deal: leadership isn’t about being right. It’s about taking responsibility. If you screw something up, own it. If your team fails, own it. If your decisions led to a mess, own it. And then — only then — can you start to earn the right to fix it.

Leadership without ownership is just noise. But when you own everything in your world, the game changes. The trust changes. The outcomes change.

So ask yourself:

What haven’t you owned yet — and what’s it costing you?

Let’s be honest. Let’s be better.
Let’s lead for real.