I tell the team we need this done by 3:00 p.m. they say got it we'll have it
done by 3:00 p.m. but they don't deliver on time and tell me well we didn't know
we needed it done by 3:00 p.m. how do I take ownership of this mm-hmm yeah this
is it this seems like a tough question right but it's actually not that type of
a question because what you think is a cool date they said they're done then
they didn't get it done then how can that be my fault and well maybe that's
not how the question is meant but that's the way I'm interpreting it for the
purpose of this answer sure because maybe you just meant like hey how do I
take ownership of this and if that's the way you meant it fine the answer is the
same actually so what happens is if that happens with what happens is if that
happens with your team then you take ownership of it by recognizing that you
did not communicate effectively because if your team isn't doing what it is you
need them to do that is actually your fault as the team leader they either
didn't understand how important it was of it didn't understand how solid that
deadline was or they didn't understand that when you said this thing needs to
be completed by three o'clock that you meant completed by three o'clock maybe
it's cuz you usually say hey we need this done tomorrow at 2:00 and you give
him slack and they just kind of take advantage of it bla bla bla then you
know if you want to take ownership of it maybe you didn't follow up enough right
maybe you trusted them too much whose fault is it if he trusted him so much
that you just let him you showed up at 2:59 is it done
well no we didn't think it was due like we didn't know you needed it action so
whose fault is that it's your fault you trusted him too much maybe you gave them
too much leeway right maybe you give him too much lately too much decentralized
command economy leadership maybe you went too far with decentralized command
you said hey get this done by three o'clock figure however you want to do it
I'll be back at 2:59 and you roll out and it's not done so
what do you do you come back at three o'clock it's not done it is your fault
do you take ownership of it you say to your team look hey okay so no how how do
you take ownership of it cool you fix the problem how do you fix the problem
in this case well guess what next time I tell you something's not done at three
o'clock I'm gonna check in with you I'm gonna check in with you a few times
here's the progress that we want make I want you to be here by this point
I want you be here by this point I should be here that by this point and
that puts us on track to finish well ahead of three o'clock mmm
so let's make it happen are you gonna micromanage a little bit more yes you
are they missed a deadline you're not allowed to miss deadlines yeah
not allowed to miss deadlines do i micromanage you echo Charles no have you
ever missed a deadline no well there's been some podcast that didn't come out
on time right well yeah I guess the depends on which means yeah I guess but
yeah yeah there's been some podcast that didn't come out on time yes and I would
send you a text like hey just wondering if you knew about a podcast that was you
know supposed to come out five hours ago that happened one time
well no 2:10 I think it's have the two times yeah yeah one of them yeah so you
don't warrant micromanagement yeah cuz you we've done a hundred and forty-seven
podcasts and you've had two that weren't out on time do I need to micromanage you
know I don't don't need to cuz we're all good the podcast ke occasionally the
times that they didn't come out one of them was like straight up operator error
where you were like I didn't press the button publish or something really lame
like that yes the other time was like major technical difficulty we got a
problem it's gonna be a couple days yeah then there was another time what was the
other time when we went to Maine the first last year and what happened we
just got there on the night that I was supposed to publish it my mind is just
distracted by the new I had lost my camera it is a crazy time for everybody
and you know the next morning you so you know graciously posted a picture of me
sleeping on the plane publish a podcast publicly which is completely she by the
way but hey everyone having fun yeah yeah it
was it was actually completely warranted because it really captured like what it
felt like I just totally spaced it out so my point is you get stuff done on
time you have a good track record there's no need for micromanagement if
you were if you were hitting a lower number you know if every you know once
every once a month it wasn't on time you be hearing about it all the time for me
like hey we good tomorrow we good I'd be checking in with you until you got so
mad at me following up with you you would
just be like hey I got this and you would never miss it again because you
didn't want to be bothered so for this one again it's important to remember
that with the idea of extreme ownership it's not just like oh well I'll say this
is my fault no when you're in charge of a team and
something goes wrong it actually is your fault it actually is your fault and
that's all there is to it maybe there's some people you need to fire because
they are though they're at fault for this mistake happening and you've let it
gone too long and you didn't get rid of them that's your fault yeah but it
actually is your fault how do you take owner how do you take ownership of it
you fix the problem maybe you got a in this particular case
maybe you gotta step up the micromanagement that's that's the way it
works yeah make sense also to the well and I'm speaking from a perspective of
someone who could very well easily space out this project by 3:00 p.m. by the way
that's me that's potentially me but this is this is when it can't happen where
let's say I get a list of like two three things whatever I got to do right now
hey we you know we want this or whatever and then let's say it's not necessarily
by 3 p.m. let's say it's like by next week Friday so I thought we can have to
do these three things and then the next day there's like another list of two
things and the next day after that one thing says hey you know what this is the
priority three days later after Lisbon establish hey this is a priority get
this done first then you want one more thing right so this thing that I said
yeah got it I'll have it done by Friday kind of thing sort of gets shuffled and
forgotten you know like forgotten so maybe I
didn't organize it or and say this is putting yourself on report yeah are you
saying that you need to make a list are you saying you need to write things down
yes people that miss things you know you do you write them down yeah I used to
make little boxes I'll show you some of the checklist you come to my house I'll
show you checklist I used to make there they were psycho OCD little checklist
little boxes next to like I would be going on a trip I would make a little
box socks t-shirts yeah everything every single thing I was taking I would have
on a list I still got those I got deployments from the 90s of what I took
on deployment as right there little boxes little boxes in
the 90s they were written down on paper and then in the 2000s I got that
computer and I print those things out note so hey people have problems if you
personally are telling me that you have a problem that you're gonna write
something down yes oh yeah and obviously you know mean you're different those
kind of notes but what I'm saying is yeah like that could be your methodology
of your micro quote/unquote micro management style for things like this
just make sure they got it kind of thing like if you're for Strings I'm thinking
in fact there could you canyou can give lists I normally wouldn't have to do
this mm-hmm but sometimes there's been a couple times on Mike life and career
where I'd have to give people a less like hey boxes form like hey here's what
you gotta get done today yeah make sure we understand each other I would only do
that if they drop the ball a couple times yeah like oh they didn't get this
done they didn't get that done okay guess what I need to write it down and
make sure it happens yeah so yeah and again it's not like I'm like I'm not
saying it's not my fault because you give me too much I'm not saying that I'm
saying like not everyone me I'm talking on me not everyone's as organized as
maybe you you know so they're gonna need some micromanagement in this particular
way you know me because maybe that's it I mean I think the tone here the
question it could be me totally gonna be me
mystery yeah but it kind of seems like hey they said they got it and they
didn't get it what more do you want from me kind of thing you know I think that's
a good way of putting it and I just gave the list of what more you can do yeah
exactly you can spell it out for me you can micromanage you can check and do
check-ins with them do all those things yeah