Failure that is an orphan
You look at your team and you see engagement.
People are active. They complete tasks. They participate in meetings. They come up with ideas. They get involved in projects. When something happens, there’s always someone to help.
At first glance, everything seems to be working. The company is moving forward. Topics are being addressed. It’s clear that people are giving it their all.
And then comes a moment when something doesn’t quite add up.
A project doesn’t deliver the expected results. A decision turns out to be wrong. Someone fails follow through. And suddenly, a topic that was theoretically “someone’s responsibility” lands on your desk. And once again, it’s you who has to find a solution.
You can build a team that really owns the outcomes
Success doesn’t have to have many fathers, and failure doesn’t have to be an orphan.
Imagine that when a project succeeds, it’s no longer the case that half the company claims credit for it. And when something goes wrong, there is no awkward silence and people don’t hide in corners. Everyone knows who did their job, and who didn’t. Not to hold anyone accountable in a punitive way. But so you have the right people in the right places. So the system can learn effectively.
The team is still engaged. People still collaborate. But they are no longer at work just to participate in projects. They are also there to lead them. To take responsibility for the results. So you no longer have to be everywhere at once.
Because that’s when failures stop “looking for” the founder. They have an owner who knows that if something doesn’t work out, they won’t be able to say they tried. And that changes the dynamic of the entire organization.
Because engagement is a necessary condition for results. Not a sufficient one.
I discuss in more detail how to build team accountability in practice as you scale in episode 4 of the Founder 2.0 series, available in Polish and English.
You get what you reward
Engagement is visible and appreciated. Someone stays late. Someone else volunteers for an extra project. Yet another person takes on another part of a task. It’s easy to notice and easy to value.
Ownership is less spectacular than engagement. It means that someone not only says: “this is my area,” but also knows that it implies responsibility for the outcome, even if part of the work has to be done by someone else.
If a company culture places more emphasis on effort than on responsibility for results, people naturally optimize for effort, not results. They get involved. They collaborate. They help.
But when something goes wrong, everyone is only responsible for their own piece of the puzzle.
“I did my part.”
“I sent the email.”
“I informed them in advance.”
And so, another team failure lands on your desk.
Not because the team is weak. But because the architecture of responsibility lacks a clearly assigned owner of the outcome. There are many hands at work, but no single person who feels the weight of the result and has the tools to deliver it. Naturally, everyone assumes that burden will be carried by the founder.
As long as you focus mainly on engagement, you might feel that everything is fine. Only when another issue returns as a problem to be solved does it become clear that something wasn’t quite right.
Because if something is off but you can’t see the problem, perhaps you’re not looking in the right place.
What’s next?
I discuss in more detail how to redesign team accountability so that failures don’t automatically land on the founder’s desk in episode 4 of the Founder 2.0 series, available in Polish and English.
And if, despite your team’s engagement, you are still the last resort in every difficult situation and want to change that — let’s talk.