High Ownership, High Urgency

The piece starts with a story about the author's mother, a small-business owner who worked 10 hours a day, six days a week, for over 40 years. Her definition of ownership - "I am the only one responsible for what happens here" - becomes the lens through which the author evaluates leadership. Ownership isn't a feel-good slogan; it's the willingness to be ultimately accountable for results within your sphere of control.

The article then dissects how ownership erodes in organizations through tactics like stakeholder-management emails that defer action, hot-potatoing responsibility, and blaming vendors. Effective operators refuse to wash their hands of problems; they surface pragmatic trade-offs, propose concrete steps, and ask for help only after exhausting alternatives. This behavior builds trust with senior leaders and translates into delegated authority. The author suggests a practical 1:1 prompt - "Forget your title, the org, and your boss. Tomorrow you're the CEO/CTO - what would you do?" - to stretch thinking beyond perceived constraints.

Urgency is presented as the companion to ownership. It isn't about external deadlines but an internal drive to fix anything that falls short of a personal quality bar. High-urgency people are "optimistically dissatisfied" - they see a better way and move to implement it, even if the path is long. The article warns that this intensity can fuel burnout, so leaders must recognize what they can control: their inputs and their sphere of influence. By balancing ownership with a measured sense of urgency, leaders can deliver better outcomes without sacrificing morale.