Owning Your Side of the Street: Leadership and Accountability

Leaders take 100% responsibility 100% of the time.

Not responsibility for everything, but responsibility for what is yours to own.

I’ll share an example from one of my coaches that paints this picture clearly:
🏡You have a house on a street. There’s another house across the street from you.
🏠You are responsible for your side of the street — not for maintaining someone else’s.

In every situation, the empowered question isn’t:
“Why is this happening to me?”

It’s: “What is there for me to own here?”

That might be:
✨a boundary that hasn’t been set
✨a conversation that you’ve been avoiding
✨a pattern you keep participating in
✨a standard you need to raise
✨a choice you get to make

There was a time in my life when this conversation left me feeling very called out.
I’m sure there will be a time when I’m ready to share that story, but today we’ll keep it short and sweet.
I felt called out because I was stuck in a cycle of guilt and shame about my situation,
and I was spending all of my time blaming everything (and everyone) around me for it.

“Leaders take full responsibility.”

Oof.

I didn’t want to hear it.
I didn’t want to look at it.
I didn’t want to know that I was responsible for all of it.
I spent A LOT of time pretending not to know that I was responsible for all of it.

As it turns out, 100% accountability is the most empowered position you can take,
because when you’re at cause, you’re also in choice.

It’s not about blame.
It’s not about guilt.
It’s about reclaiming your agency.

You are not powerless in your job, your relationship, your business, or your life.

It’s not happening to you — it’s moving through you, and you get to decide what you do with it.
So, I’ll ask you. What is there for you to own here? 😉