4 Ways to Make Employees Think More Like Owners

June 16, 2021 | 477 views

4 Ways to Make Employees Think More Like Owners
4 Ways to Make Employees Think More Like Owners

We’ve all worked for someone else as an employee. From the first fast-food job in high school to the job we secured after college, we know what it is like to be an employee. It means following a prescribed set of rules—from arrival times to task lists, employees are governed by what their “superior” tells them to do.

The manager or owner giving the orders, on the other hand, is prioritizing tasks based upon information and goals about which employees have no information. An employee may complete their task list, but they do not share the overall objective of the owner. However, for a business to be its best, managers must foster an environment that helps employees think like owners.

If every employee’s abilities were developed and trained to think like owners, the business would benefit from the combined acumen and skills of every employee-stakeholder in the organization. To develop employees to think like owners, we must trust their abilities and dedication by consistently employing these four strategies.

#1.  Share Your Business Reasoning and Philosophy

Explaining how you make your business decisions does two things. First, it makes clear what you value and how you balance various business concerns. Second, employees start to adopt your thinking as they problem-solve. When you tell them what to do, they know what you expect, but if you tell them why you do it, they can adapt their methods to enhance your goals. And don’t be shy about financial data. From compensation to cost of goods, share it all so that your staff can balance priorities and contribute in holistic ways.

#2.  Make Ownership Tangible to Employees

You don’t have to share ownership itself, but you can offer employees a stake in your success. Merit-based bonuses are one way to enhance their contribution. When employees know that performance targets include a reward, they will work harder, but they will also seek to find better ways to achieve the goals. When that occurs, they are thinking like owners. Profit-sharing, equity-sharing, and stock options are other ways to share the wealth that occurs as employees develop their owner mentality.

#3.  Change Employee Task Lists to Professional Goals

Employees develop better when they have participated in their career paths. Within the company goals, each employee can help develop their performance targets that help meet those goals. Doing so helps reach the goals and helps develop the employee’s ability to see how their role contributes to the bigger picture. Depending on your needs, these can be weekly, monthly, or quarterly, but it is measurable. And while you’re collaborating on employee goals, be sure to make them a bit of a challenge. Your staff will develop more skills while developing their ownership mentality.

#4.  Evaluate Cooperatively

Use meetings and goal-setting discussions to cooperatively enhance the company’s goals. Get employee feedback on difficulties while providing details on what is going well and what is not. Then incorporate their evaluations as part of group problem-solving. They will feel respected and valued as part of your organization—and that leads to employees who want to think like owners. 

When employees work together with an owner’s perspective, they contribute with the entire organization in mind. As ownership mentality increases in importance, it brings out the best in employees and in the business.

Author Profile Jon Forknell is the Vice President and General Manager of Atlas Business Solutions, Inc., a software marketing company specializing in employee scheduling software, including ScheduleBase employee scheduling software, and other business software solutions. In the past, Jon has been recognized by the U.S. Small Business Administration as a SBA Young Entrepreneur of the Year. For many years, Atlas Business Solutions has been named one of Software Magazine’s Top 500 Software Companies.

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