Robert Frost once said, "Isn't it a shame that when we get up in the morning our minds work furiously -- until we come to work."
In the new economy this can't be true. Everyone must come to work fully engaged and ready to make a difference.
A global revolution is under way and it's calling for gutsy leaders -- people who can inspire knowledge workers to exercise their own brand of leadership by assuming ownership and personal accountability.
The future belongs to those who understand the power of culture and use it to feed the entrepreneurial spirit. In this article, we will offer ways you can create a culture where people have a vested interest in the success of your business.
Equip people to think and act like owners
If you want your people to think and act like owners of the business, you have to do more than just offer profit sharing, provide stock options and share financial information.
You must educate them. It means demystifying the language of business, explaining what the numbers mean, teaching how that information can be applied.
At Semco (a Brazilian company that has become world famous for real-world business practices), every employee not only receives the company's financial statements, but is encouraged to attend classes on how to read and analyse these reports.
Employees must understand how economic value is created, how revenues and expenses translate into profit, how they can create financial security for themselves and the organisation, and what investors contribute and want in return.
Ownership requires a sweeping perspective, not a narrow focus on a particular product or service line. It demands great execution in the present with an eye simultaneously kept on the future.
Employees must be taught to see themselves as the people who make the business grow. But conventional organisations are designed to do the opposite.
Focusing employees on one narrow part of the organisation, they send the message: "Take care of your functional area. Let senior executives worry about the company as a whole."
This attitude is obviously demeaning (since it assumes that only those at the top are capable of strategic thinking), and it instantly shuts down imaginative, creative thinking.
It practically guarantees mediocrity at best, and invites downright failure.
Change the people who make the rules
Ownership doesn't only mean changing the rules; it means changing the people who make the rules.
Suppose you were to allocate the freedom to hire employees, set targets and establish schedules to those in your company closest to the front lines.
Chances are, those employees would feel more committed and work more productively because they would know that their opinions are trusted and that they are considered the experts of their world.
Examine the significant areas in your organisation and find five where you can relinquish control and trust your people to do the right thing. If anyone habitually abuses this freedom, deal reasonably but firmly with him or her.
Liberate talent
Ownership means that people are free to act without the fears that squash initiative. When employees have to cling to safety nets, they are certainly not going to commit themselves to a system in which they have responsibility and accountability. Self-preservation becomes the norm.
The late Harry Quadracci, founder of Quad/Graphics, one of the world's foremost printers, pushed his people into thinking like owners and assuming the responsibilities that viewpoint engenders.
He financed an expansion of the trucking fleet by inducing his drivers to find loads for their return trips. Handing them the keys to their trucks, he announced that they were all now owners in the corporation's new division -- DuPlainville Transport.
How they made the rigs profitable on return trips was up to them. When the drivers asked Quadracci how to do that, he answered, "I don't know anything about driving an 18-wheeler." To their own amazement, the drivers found loads and made their new division work.
Turn up the volume on trust
Ownership is a radical approach because it recognises that an organisation's true experts are the people on the front lines, and trusts them to operate with the organisation's best interests in mind. And that trust will bolster employees' self-confidence and encourage them to take on even more responsibility.
The cultures of trusting companies embrace the concept of employee commitment and reject the concept of top-down compliance. In a trusting company, employees are invested in their jobs because they want to be, not because they have to be.
The challenges we face today require committed people. And the key to developing them lies in the hands of leaders who know how to liberate talent.
(Kevin and Jackie Freiberg own a consulting firm that equips leaders for a world of change. They are co-authors of the award winning and bestseller, NUTS! and GUTS! Website: www.freibergs.com)
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