Alex is a
nice young man. He does good (but not great) work as a case manager. In other
areas, his performance is pretty uneven. He is regularly tardy; calls in “sick”
frequently and at the last minute; and has a habit of taking extended lunches
and breaks. Others have noticed this pattern. Some, including his boss, Jerry,
look the other way, because he’s such a nice guy.
Most of us
know someone like this. They “phone it
in,” and drive the rest of us crazy because everyone else is left picking up
the pieces to make sure his work gets done.
We would all rather work with someone like this:
Karen is an
administrative assistant. As she and I walked together through her department,
she stopped frequently to give directions to several lost clients. She picked up
trash, straightened up chairs, and greeted her colleagues across the
organization by name. I just knew she was a joy to work with, making sure her
work was done well and, at the same time, helping others so that everyone
around her was successful.
What’s the
difference? Karen is engaged, cares
about her work, her teammates, everything about what she does. Alex, not so
much.
Karen is
“leading from her seat,” an expression from the inaugural volume of my Everyday
Leadership Series. Take the Lead, which means she has taken on the
responsibility to be the very best administrative assistant she can be. She is admired, listened to, and her
coworkers accept her help. She gets the long-term vision of what it might be
like if we all showed up as our best selves each day. And she also
intrinsically operates from something even more fundamental. She understands what it means to be an
owner!
Several years ago, I
was facilitating an educational program when someone asked me a question about
how you get someone to be fully accountable for their work. Instead of
answering her outright, I asked her this provocative question: What’s the
difference between someone who owns their home and rents it?
This analogy is not
intended as a “put down” to owners, renters or landlords. I have owned my own
home, rented my home, and I have been a landlord, and I sincerely believe that
an owner has a different attitude or mindset about their home than someone who
is renting. (Do you agree with me?)
Here are some of the sentiments that I think owners often have:
“I’m proud of my property! The way that I maintain and enhance
this home is a reflection on me”
“Everything that I do creates more value in the property.”
“If something needs attention, it’s on me to get that done.”
“I’m in this for the long haul.”
And these are some of the ways that renters may think:
“I’ll do what I’m obligated to do in my renter’s agreement
(contract), but not a whole lot more.”
“I’m not going to live here forever, so I’m not going to improve things
too much. After all, what would I get out of it?”
“If something goes wrong, I’m not responsible. It’s the owners’
problem to handle. I have his number programmed into my phone.”
It’s not hard to see where I’m going with this. Working in the “same-old same-old” pattern of
boss/employee creates a culture of renters. A person taking responsibility not
only for their own position but for the overall well-being of entire
organization is an owner.
Let’s revisit the two people with whom I started this post. Karen, the conscientious administrative
assistant “owns” her work. Alex, the
case manager, is a renter and unfortunately a fairly poor one at that. Alex is
just doing his j-o-b so he can get his paycheck. He’s unhappy, and it shows.
Karen gets that leading from your seat, coaching others around you and achieving
full throttle engagement is the power and freedom that comes from
being an ‘owner’ of the organization.
What she does every day at work is more than a “j-o-b”: it
fulfills her, she has purpose, and she elevates those around her as well.
This analogy should be pretty obvious. It’s the foundational idea
of workplace accountability. At its core, a fully accountable culture is full
of owners rather than renters!
To be continued…. Look for our next post, The Self-Employed Mindset!
If you're interested in developing a culture of owners within YOUR organization, my latest book, Own It!, is a great place to start. Own It! and it's predecessor, Take The Lead are both available for purchase on the Vantage International website.
