Ownership

I think ownership matters.  In fact - I think it is the difference between indifference and attachment.    It's more than a title - that's for sure. 

In times when I have discussed team members on my company's teams - I think one of the highest compliments that can be paid is - "she thinks like an owner"...

What I'm talking about here is the idea that a new company really hums - really hits its stride - when the employees - the early ones - take "ownership" of the business.  It's more than just the options they're given when they hire on and it's more than the additional options they get for hitting that extra milestone.

I guess this doesn't apply to just new company's but ones that have been around forever - the kind that have one or two letter stock symbols - if you get my meaning.

I think it has a lot to do with the synchronization of the employee's personal and professional aspiration, their personal and professional hopes and desires and the success of the company in general. 

I believe that if a Leader of a company, a CEO for example, can communicate a clear and direct and exact connection between the team members' personal/professional success and the company's success - the end result is ownership.  This ownership isn't as tangible as the aforementioned class of ownership.  It's not represented in share count or percent of company. 

This doesn't just apply to the CEO I guess but probably any team lead in any company at any level.

I think a core responsibility I have in my new company is to learn about my team members' aspirations and personal and professional goals and help connect the dots between the achievement of those goals and dreams to the success and achievement of the company.  There are more parts to what I do - but I believe that this is core.  I believe I have a responsibility to assist is this goal achivement.

( Would you be surprised if I told you that this can be mathematically & financially calculated as a net present value number.  Sure - it's built on assumptions, some stronger than others. I had a boss do this with me once in the Air Force right after leaving the Academy.  Now that was an eye opener.... ).

I look at a number of company's in the press today (United Airlines for example) and I guess it's a strecth but I think that a host of problems - most of the problems - suffered by the you-name-it Fortune 50 companies - are this type of "ownership" related.   

Connect personal aspirations to the success of the company and you get employees that think like owners.