By Dr. Abiola Salami
Stop Explaining. Start Owning: The New Language of Peak Performance By Dr. Abiola Salami, Author of GRIT: A Performance Tool for Driving Accountability & Ownership in Young Talent Across the Marketplace
Introduction
We Live in the age of polished excuses. They are the soft language of decline. They now come dressed in strategy decks, market analyses, and stakeholder memos. Excuses have become sophisticated. They sound intelligent, they feel logical, and they spread fast in modern workplaces dressed in data and diplomacy.
Across boardrooms and open-plan offices, we hear them daily:
“The economy shifted.”
“The client changed scope.”
“The team wasn’t motivated.”
Each sounds rational, yet behind them often hides the same truth. When you peel back those phrases and you’ll find a subtle surrender which is a way of explaining outcomes without ever owning them. This is a quiet refusal to own results. The future will not belong to those who explain well, but to those who own decisively.
From the skyscrapers of Lagos Island to the glass towers of Nairobi and the tech parks of Johannesburg and all across corporate Africa today, performance pressure is at an all-time high.
Teams are smarter, systems faster, and markets more unpredictable than ever.
Yet despite all the dashboards and digital tools, many leaders still struggle with one timeless challenge – personal responsibility.
The best leaders don’t just report reality; they re-author it. They move from “here’s why it happened” to “here’s what I’ll do next.” That shift from explanation to ownership is where peak performance truly begins.
As a Champion in the marketplace, you must learn that ownership is not a confession of guilt; it’s a declaration of control.
Tunde — A Young Manager’s Wake-Up Call
Tunde had done everything right — or so he thought. At 32, he was one of the youngest team leads at a fast-growing fintech in Lagos. Ambitious, articulate, and MBA-trained, he’d built a reputation as “the numbers guy.”
But when his product launch missed the company’s revenue target for the second quarter in a row, he was summoned to a performance review with the regional director.
“I can explain,” he began, projecting calm professionalism.
He blamed the economy, customer hesitancy, even the marketing department’s delay in pushing ads. His slides were flawless; his logic, airtight. But when he finished, the director leaned forward and said quietly,
“Tunde, you’ve explained everything except your own role.”
The sentence hit like a cold breeze.
In that moment, he realized he had defended his competence but forfeited his influence. He was brilliant yet blameless and blamelessness is the enemy of growth.
Over the next few weeks, through coaching conversations and personal reflection, Tunde learned to replace defensive explanations with decisive ownership.
Instead of saying “Marketing didn’t deliver,” he began saying “I didn’t align our timelines early enough.” Instead of “The market was slow,” he’d say “I underestimated the customer education required.”
Within two quarters, his team’s output improved by 47%, and he was promoted to associate director.
His transformation captured the essence of this truth: Performance doesn’t improve when we rationalize to preserve your self image; it improves because we commit to accountability, accept responsibility and take action.
Psyhology of Explanation: Why Intelligent Professionals Explain Instead of Own
Human nature protects the ego. Neuroscience offers one clue. The brain’s default mode network seeks to protect our self-image. When faced with failure, it generates justifications that preserve ego safety. That’s why smart people often have the most sophisticated excuses.
According to McKinsey Africa 2023, 67 percent of mid-level managers blame “external complexity” for missed outcomes, while only 18 percent cite leadership choices.
Yet in high-performing organizations, that ratio reverses. Leaders accept more internal responsibility and build adaptive systems around it.
Ownership begins with emotional intelligence. Specifically, self-awareness and self-regulation. It is the ability to recognize our emotional impulse to defend and instead choose to learn. In emotionally intelligent cultures, failure isn’t fatal; denial is.
Three signs you’re explaining, not owning:
• You describe obstacles longer than solutions.
• You say they more than I.
• Your post-mortems lack next steps.
Introducing the OWN IT™ Framework
To help leaders translate responsibility from theory to action, I developed the OWN IT™ Framework. It is a five-step model for describing performance challenges responsibly.
It invites reflection without shame and action without delay.
O — Objective Reality: Describe What’s Happening (Not Who’s to Blame)
The first discipline of ownership is clarity. State the facts as they are, stripped of emotion and judgment. Facts invite focus; emotions invite friction. A Kenyan telecom manager once told me, “When we describe a problem emotionally, we inflate it; when we describe it factually, we can fix it.” Objective reality replaces narrative bias with data.
Question Que: What actually happened not what you felt happened?
W — Why It Matters: Connect the Challenge to Impact
Responsibility thrives on relevance. When people see why their work matters, they naturally rise to meet it. Link every performance gap to its ripple effect on customers, colleagues, and community. A Ghanaian consulting firm that discussed why their work mattered saw 31 percent higher engagement in six months. Purpose powers performance.
Question Que: What value is lost or trust eroded when this problem persists?
N — Narrative of My Role: Take Ownership of My Part
This is the turning point — the courage to see your reflection in the result.
It’s not about blame; it’s about influence. Owning your slice of the story increases influence. True leaders don’t own all the blame; they own their ability to change the game.
Even when external factors dominate, leaders ask, “Where is my leverage?” not “Who’s at fault?” This question separates professionals who wait for change from those who create it.
I — Initiative for Change: Declare What Will Be Different
Ownership is sterile without initiative. Move from knowing to doing. Move from analysis to action: What will I do differently?
When a South African insurance executive used this step during a leadership retreat, she realized she could eliminate 40% of her department’s delays by introducing a mid-week progress review. This is a small initiative, big impact. Simple, decisive, measurable.
Question Que: What new behavior will prove that I’ve learned from this challenge?
T — Track & Test: Define Accountability Measures
Without measurement, intention fades. Set proof points. Set clear indicators that verify improvement. At a Nigerian oil-and-gas firm, leaders began tracking “time-to-decision” as a performance metric. Within 90 days, bureaucracy dropped by 23%.
Tracking transforms ownership into culture. Measurement turns ownership into momentum.
Question Que: How will I know I’m improving and how often will I test it?
Leadership Maturity Equation
Authority – Ownership = Arrogance
When someone holds authority (position, title, or power) without ownership (responsibility, humility, and accountability), it breeds arrogance.
They enjoy the privileges of leadership without bearing its weight. This type of leader commands compliance but not commitment because their power intimidates, but it doesn’t inspire.
Example: A manager who blames the team for every failure but claims credit for every success. They hold authority but take no ownership.
Ownership – Authority = Leadership Without Title
Even without authority, ownership alone creates a form of natural leadership.
This is the intern who thinks like an owner, the volunteer who treats the vision as theirs.
They might not have positional power, but they possess personal power. Such people are often promoted or followed long before they’re officially recognized.
Example: A team member who consistently solves problems, uplifts morale, and takes initiative are the young talent that influence beyond their rank.
Ownership + Authority = Influence
When authority is combined with ownership, the result is influence.
Here, the leader uses their position to serve, empower, and elevate others.
Influence is not enforced; it is earned. People follow not because they must, but because they want to.
Example: A CEO who leads by example, admits mistakes, and still drives results — this creates trust and long-term loyalty.
Summary Equation
| Component | Without the Other | Result |
| Authority – Ownership | Arrogance | Power without accountability |
| Ownership – Authority | Trust Leadership | Influence without title |
| Ownership + Authority | Influence | Power with responsibility |
Applying OWN IT™ Across Leadership Levels
Emerging Leaders:
For young professionals, ownership is the fast lane to trust. While many early-career employees crave visibility, what actually earns credibility is responsibility. In one pan-African bank, interns who proactively used the OWN IT™ model during feedback sessions were twice as likely to be retained full-time.
Mid-Level Managers:
At this level, excuses often hide behind complexity. Omplexity breeds excuses. Managers juggle cross-functional teams, unclear mandates, and executive expectations. Using the framework helps them translate chaos into clarity. When they model ownership, teams mirror it.
Senior Executives:
For seasoned leaders, the challenge is not skill; it’s humility. Experience can breed ego.
After decades of success, many unconsciously outsource accountability to hierarchy.
But as one Johannesburg CEO admitted, “When my people stop telling me the truth, it’s because I stopped owning mine.” OWN IT™ gives senior leaders a mirror not to judge, but to adjust. It keeps power humble and human.
Emotional Intelligence — The Missing Link
Words either close hearts or open them. Emotionally intelligent leaders know language shapes culture. These leaders understand that how they frame a problem shapes how their people fight it. They replace “You failed to meet target” with “We didn’t meet target; let’s examine our control.” That phrasing transforms fear into focus. Emotional intelligence turns accountability into empathy; ownership turns empathy into action.
According to PwC’s 2024 Future of Work Africa Report, organizations that integrate emotional intelligence training into leadership development experience 25% higher retention and 34% higher cross-functional collaboration. EI makes accountability compassionate; ownership makes compassion actionable.
How To Institutionalize an Ownership Culture
Culture is not what leaders say; it’s what they consistently celebrate. Culture is what you repeat and reward. Here is how leaders can ensure ownership is not just a motivational buzzword but a culture byy embedding it into the rituals, reviews, and rewards of the organization:
A. Rituals
Start meetings with the question, “What’s one thing I’m owning this week?”
It reframes dialogue around responsibility instead of blame. At a Nairobi logistics firm, this five-minute ritual boosted peer-accountability scores by 29%.
B. Reviews
Integrate the OWN IT™ model into performance appraisals. Replace “weaknesses” with “areas I’m owning for improvement.” This language turns evaluation into evolution.
C. Rewards
Celebrate ownership publicly. In Accra, a telecom company created a monthly “Ownership Spotlight” recognizing employees who took initiative after failure. Engagement soared; cynicism dropped. That tells us that culture is not what leaders say; it’s what they repeatedly reward.
When leaders stop explaining and start owning, something profound happens – the atmosphere shifts from compliance to commitment. People stop defending effort and start delivering results. They move from “They should” to “I will.” People move from doing what’s required to doing what’s right. They stop asking, “Who’s at fault?” and start asking, “What’s within my control?”
In a continent bursting with youthful talent and entrepreneurial energy, this mindset is our greatest competitive advantage. Africa doesn’t suffer from a talent deficit; it suffers from an ownership deficit. Ownership is Africa’s new currency of credibility and every young professional who embraces responsibility becomes a multiplier of national potential. It’s how we convert potential into performance.
Your 30-Day Challenge
Look around your workspace. How much time is spent explaining versus owning? How many meetings end with clarity instead of excuses? How often do you say “I will” instead of “They should”?
Starting today, pick one challenge this month and run it through OWN IT™:
1️. O: What really happened?
2️. W: Why does it matter?
3️. N: What’s my role?
4. I: What will I do differently?
5️. T: How will I measure progress?
Practice it weekly and you’ll notice a transformation: less noise, more progress; less defensiveness, more decisiveness. You’ll talk less about problems and more about progress. Your outcome will be less about blame and more about breakthroughs.
Because real leadership is not just about being right; it’s about being responsible.
Final Thought
Excuses may protect your pride today, but ownership protects your potential forever.
Whether you’re a graduate trainee or a board chair, your credibility grows every time you say, “I see my part. I own my power. I will do better.” The future of performance in Africa, from the boardroom to the front line, belongs to those who can look at results, good or bad, and take responsibility.
That is not merely maturity; it is mastery, it is accountability and it is ownership.
An Invitation to the Emerging Leaders’ Summit – TPP Fest 2025
If you’re an ambitious professional who’s tired of waiting to be discovered — and ready to start designing your own rise — then the Emerging Leaders Summit at TPP Fest 2025 is where you need to be.
This isn’t another youth conference filled with buzzwords and theories. It’s a transformational coaching experience designed to help you master the blend of AI and Emotional Intelligence — so you can grow, rise, innovate, and thrive against all odds.
At the Summit, we decode what it truly means to lead in the 21st century: how to turn potential into performance, how to influence without a title, and how to build relevance that outlives the trends.
You’ll connect with bold thinkers, visionary mentors, and fellow disruptors who are rewriting the story of African excellence — one skill, one mindset, one decision at a time.
Join us. Step into a room designed for tomorrow’s C-Suite leaders — not just to learn, but to transform.
Because the future won’t wait for those who hesitate. It belongs to those who prepare.
Reach out to my team to secure seats for the high-potential talents in your organization today
About Dr. Abiola Salami
Dr. Abiola Salami is the Convener of Dr Abiola Salami International Leadership Bootcamp ; The Peak PerformerTM Festival Made4More Accelerator Program and The New Year Kickoff Summit. He is the Principal Performance Strategist at CHAMP – a full scale professional services firm trusted by high performing business leaders for providing Executive Coaching, Workforce Development & Advisory Services to improve performance. You can reach his team on hello@abiolachamp.com and connect with him @abiolachamp on all social media platforms.
For private coaching, boardroom recalibration, or executive healing strategy, connect email me directly at hello@abiolachamp.com to begin your private Executive Coaching Session.
