Employee Thinking vs Owner Thinking
by Marc Rogatschnig on 01/10/08 at 11:04 am
8 comments
There was a time when I laboured my time away in a government hospital – it was a foot-dragging, knuckle-scraping existence. After daily collisions with institutional mediocrity I succumbed to my title – employee!! I began devouring time with diary reviews to see when and how I could maximize my leave, tinkering with my cell phone apps and doing very little!
It was time to leave!!
There were many reasons I behaved this way, but essentially I failed to understand a defining principle – ‘customers paid my salary’ (ok, in this case it was patients and tax payers money but you know what I mean!)
In my experience, very few employees really understand this and those that are not convinced that the tasks they perform on a daily basis have a direct impact on customer experience are:
EMD’s or Employees of Mass Destruction.
These EMD’s have little understanding of the integrated series of relationships that influence the accuracy, speed and movement of information and resources through a business.
They don’t understand that the tasks they perform impact the efficiency of these relationships and ultimately the customer experience.
I worked with a sales guy at a large furniture factory just couldn’t understand how he could be negatively impacting customer experience – the clients loved him, he was sharp, savvy and ‘keeping the business alive’ after all. BUT every deal he closed, he delivered the order details 48 hours late – this delay encroached on lead times and invariably the deliveries were late – customers don’t tolerate that too much!
He got it!
Entrepreneurs and small business owners understand this intuitively but what can they do about it – after all, they are usually knowledge worker – managerial, professional or technical and medium to high income earners. According to the Hudson Highland Center for High Performance, knowledge workers thrive in environments where:
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People are Valued – smart people are treated as such; they are told what the goals are but not how to achieve them.
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Critical thinking is Optimised – groups are given authority to use resources to meet goals.
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Opportunities are seized – there is a pathological tenacity for innovation and learning.
Most employees would seek these conditions too, but if they continue to think like employees – then they become dangerous EMD’s. The responsibility of a business owner is to teach their employees to ‘think like business owners’ and make no assumptions on their awareness of this!
Marc Rogatschnig follows the Arnold Schwarzenegger rule of branding: "If you can spell my name right, I must be doing my job right". Marc is a business consultant, surfer, Africa traveler, energy ambassador, dreamer and a big fan of common courtesy. Marc also happens to be a Clinical Psychologist, so watch your comments or he’ll publicly expose you for being a bed wetter at age 12. View more articles by Marc Rogatschnig.
Linda
Oct 1st, 2008
Great article,
I am an avid Ideate reader (this is my first comment:)
Just handed in my resignation would love to be a business owner myself (someday when I’m big) for now little baby steps, so would love to work with/for business owners who …”teach their employees to ‘think like business owners’ “.
Any suggestions on where I look or how I go about doing this.
Bennet Simonton
Oct 1st, 2008
Marc,
Well said and you have hit the nail on the head.
But the cause of such EMD thinking is management. Management can allow employees to develop a strong sense of ownership thus releasing their full potential of creativity, innovation, and productivity while having great morale. Or, management can create demotivated, demoralized employees who act like your EMDs.
My point is that this is management’s choice. Managers using the traditional top-down command and control approach to managing people will create EMDs every time.
In 30+ years of managing people, I escaped top-down after 12 years and moved to an approach which achieved results far better than I had dreamed possible. In the process, I discovered that people are four times more capable than I thought possible.
To learn more about my strategy, please read these Leadership Articles starting with the article “Leadership, Good or Bad”.
Best regards, Ben
naeem
Oct 1st, 2008
eish i always mixup employee and employer
Guy once told me, you have to at times realise that your staff cannot be you. Dont have unrealistic expectations of them – if they are that super, they’d have their own business.
This in a SMME retail business.
Our side, we believe – you get what you put in. We treat our staff good, and they in turn work well. We give alot of rope with sick days, lunch breaks etc, and they in turn are willing to put in overtime when need arises.
At the end of the day, our business takes care of 35 guys, 35 families. 35 breadwinners. We all know, if we stuff up, we proverbially kill the golden goose.
Obviously theres the obligatory bad apples which we root out. But i think we have a fantastic work enviroment. Almost like a brotherhood amongst ourselves.
Marc
Oct 2nd, 2008
Linda! wow, its been a big week for you!Best of luck!
I don’t have a list of companies you could approach – but it may be more useful to consider how you could find out who ‘teaches their employees to think like business owners’. Essentially, ask any propsective boss to explain their full business process to you – ask them all the questions that relate to how they make momey and who is considered crucial to the bottom line. In the process you display an eagerness to learn and an awareness beyond the average EMD! best of luck, Marc
Marc
Oct 2nd, 2008
Hi Ben
Ditto – well said! Your experience is shared and i fully agree that the average EMD is allowed to thrive under poor, command-driven, heirachical & power-driven leadership.
The blame culture of many business owners shifts too much responsibility to the employee without providing the context, support and co-operation required to build their ‘business owner thinking’. My question to you would be – ‘why do you think many business owners don’t manage in a manner that builds this type of thinking?’
I look forward to hearing from you!
best wishes, Marc
Marc
Oct 2nd, 2008
Great work Naeem, that your business has been around for a long time, speaks volumes for the quality of your people and your leadership.
I’d be interested to hear a comment or two from you staff members to my post.
What do you think?
Cheers, Marc
Marc
Oct 2nd, 2008
….my spelling leaves much to be desired – i type too fast for my fingers, sorry!
Skills for IT
Sep 4th, 2011
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