Responsibility, Results, & Reality

There’s a certain kind of conversation that, on the surface, sounds like a compliment. It usually starts with trust.

“You’re the right person for this.” “We believe in you.” “We know you’ll figure it out.”

And if you’ve spent any amount of time trying to grow in your career, that kind of language lands well. It feels like progress. Like responsibility is expanding because someone sees something in you. So you say yes. You take it on. You go all-in. You start thinking about what success looks like and how you’re going to get there.

And for a while, that’s enough.

But somewhere along the way, you start to realize something you couldn’t quite see at the beginning. The outcome you’re responsible for depends on decisions you don’t make. I’ve seen it in corporate environments, and I’ve seen it just as clearly in the golf business. Priorities shift, but you weren’t part of the conversation that shifted them. Resources get allocated, but not necessarily to what you’re being asked to build. Expectations remain high, but the definition of success stays just out of reach. Nothing is broken in a way you can point to directly. It just becomes harder to move.

I’ve seen this show up in different ways over time. In conversations where the goal sounds clear, but no one can quite explain how it will be measured. In roles where the scope continues to grow, but the authority attached to it stays the same. In situations where strong work is happening, but it doesn’t seem to travel unless it’s seen in the right room. And maybe most quietly, in people who are doing everything they can to deliver, while carrying a weight they don’t fully control.

In golf facilities, it’s easier to spot once you know what you’re looking for. A professional is asked to grow the business, but pricing and access to the tee sheet are already spoken for. Player development is a priority, but the time to actually develop players is squeezed between everything else that keeps the operation moving. The expectation is to elevate the experience, but what that actually means is left open to interpretation. None of that is unique to golf, but it becomes more visible when the constraints are easier to see.

Over time, I’ve come to realize that what people are feeling in those moments isn’t a lack of effort or even a lack of clarity. It’s a lack of alignment. Responsibility is clear. The results matter. The expectations are real. But the authority to fully influence those results doesn’t always sit in the same place.

That’s where reality starts to set in.

Not all at once, and not in a way that’s easy to call out. But in the quiet recognition that you are being held accountable for something you can’t fully control. What sounds like ownership begins to feel more like exposure. In more direct terms, it’s accountability without leverage.

Most of the time, this isn’t intentional. Organizations are balancing a lot. Priorities compete. Structures evolve slowly. Decisions get made with the best information available at the time. But even when the intent is good, the impact is still felt. Because when responsibility, results, and reality fall out of alignment, the pressure changes.

Execution slows, not because people don’t care, but because they’re navigating around constraints instead of driving through them. Frustration builds, not loudly, but steadily. And over time, even strong, capable leaders can start to feel like they’re operating just outside of where real influence lives.

I don’t think the answer is to remove pressure or expectation. Those are necessary. They’re part of growth. But I do think it’s worth asking a better question, especially for those of us responsible for leading others. When we ask someone to own an outcome, have we actually given them the ability to influence it? Because if we want people to take true ownership, it can’t stop at responsibility. It has to extend to clarity, to access, to trust that shows up not just in words, but in how decisions are shared. It has to align responsibility with results in a way that reflects reality.

And if you’ve ever found yourself in that space, carrying something you’re responsible for but can’t fully control, there’s a different question worth sitting with. What do you actually own here? Not in title. Not in expectation. But in reality.

Clarity on that won’t solve everything. But it’s a starting point. And most of the time, that’s what’s been missing all along.