𝐀𝐥𝐥 𝐬𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐪𝐮𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤

Years ago, Coach Mike Leach said something that stayed with me. He told his players, “All sacks are on the quarterback.”

At first, it sounded unfair. Anyone who has played or watched football knows that is not always true. Sometimes the offensive line misses a block. Sometimes a receiver runs the wrong route. Sometimes the defense simply wins the play. But that was never the point.

Coach Leach was not assigning blame. He was teaching ownership.

When you assume responsibility for what happens on the field, you stay in control of what happens next. When you deflect, you surrender that control.

That simple idea has followed me through years of leadership in property management and operations. The longer I have led, the more I believe it might be one of the most important lessons for any leader in any industry.

Ownership Over Excuses

In multifamily operations, the game never really ends. Occupancy rises and falls. Compliance rules change. Market conditions shift overnight. There are more variables than any one leader can control, and yet, the best leaders always find a way forward.

They do it by refusing to hide behind excuses.

When occupancy dips, it is easy to point to the market. When compliance breaks down, it is easy to blame the system. When communication stalls, it is tempting to call out staffing shortages or external constraints.

But the leaders who grow, the ones whose teams perform consistently, ask different questions.

What can I adjust?
Where can we strengthen our systems?
How can I help my team execute more effectively?

They understand that ownership does not mean perfection. It means agency. It means keeping your hand on the wheel even when the road gets rough.

The Leadership Parallel

I have watched this play out across hundreds of properties. One regional manager faces a sudden drop in occupancy and immediately rallies her team to analyze leads, review pricing, and reconnect with residents. Another spends weeks explaining why the market changed.

The first regional turns the challenge into a project. The second turns it into a complaint.

Guess which team recovers faster.

Ownership creates momentum. Deflection drains it.

Systems, Not Excuses

This mindset matters even more as portfolios grow. When you lead dozens of properties or hundreds of people, every system you design either reinforces accountability or dilutes it.

I once worked with a company that had unintentionally trained its site teams to defer responsibility upward. Every issue, from maintenance backlogs to resident disputes, had to be cleared by upper management. The process was safe, but it was also stagnant.

The solution was not to lecture about ownership. It was to build systems that made ownership possible. Clear decision zones, defined escalation paths, and feedback loops turned accountability into structure. Within three months, property teams were making faster decisions, resident satisfaction improved, and leadership finally had time to focus on strategy instead of firefighting.

Ownership works best when it is operationalized.

The Culture of Accountability

Culture always starts at the top. If executives constantly explain away problems with external reasons, that mindset trickles down. Teams mirror what they see.

But when leaders model accountability, it spreads just as fast.

At one leadership meeting, I watched a regional manager present her quarterly numbers. Occupancy had dipped slightly, and she could have listed ten valid explanations. Instead, she opened with, “Here is where we missed, here is why, and here is what we are already changing.”

The tone of the meeting shifted immediately. Instead of defensiveness, there was problem solving. Instead of blame, there was clarity. Ownership turned a setback into a strategy session.

That is what Coach Leach meant. The quarterback might not cause every sack, but when he owns the play, the whole team learns faster.

From the Field to the Front Office

The lesson applies everywhere.

In property management, the quarterback might be a site manager handling resident issues. In operations, it might be a regional manager navigating budget constraints. In leadership, it might be an executive steering through staffing challenges or shifting compliance rules.

Whoever is in the role, the principle remains the same. You cannot always control the outcome, but you can control your response.

Ownership keeps you focused on what you can influence. It forces clarity. It builds credibility. And over time, it creates cultures where people stop waiting for someone else to fix the problem and start leading forward.

Ownership as a Competitive Edge

In an industry that moves as fast as multifamily, accountability is not just a leadership virtue. It is a competitive advantage.

When every layer of an organization understands that progress starts with personal responsibility, things move faster. Communication becomes more direct. Decisions become clearer. Teams spend less time defending their performance and more time improving it.

The best-performing portfolios I have seen all share this DNA. Their leaders own their results. They take the hit, learn from it, and make the next play better.

It is not about being the hero. It is about modeling what it means to stay in the game when others step back.

Executive Reflection

Coach Leach’s lesson applies far beyond the football field. “All sacks are on the quarterback” was never about blame. It was about ownership. It was about keeping control of your response when circumstances do not go your way.

In property management and operations, that mindset changes everything. It turns challenges into learning opportunities, setbacks into strategies, and confusion into clarity.

At Weishaar Strategic Partners, we help leaders operationalize that mindset by building systems that translate accountability into action. Leadership is not about avoiding mistakes. It is about owning them, learning from them, and modeling the resilience that keeps teams moving forward.

The next time a project stalls or a number dips, ask yourself: What can I adjust? What can we strengthen? How can I help my team execute more effectively?

When leaders take ownership, the team follows. And when the team takes ownership, progress becomes inevitable.

That is true on the field, in the office, and anywhere great leadership is built.