what if you owned the company?

Note: This article was written in May 2004.

The more and more I work with both individuals and organisations, the more Mahatma Gandhi’s wisdom comes home to me. "We must be the change we want to see in the world," he said. What this means is that we must look to ourselves first, change how we are, and then have what changes we want to happen be a result of that.

To do that, we need to have the best support system possible – starting with our own internal clarity and confidence. This is where good coaching comes in.

Good coaches ask good questions. The questions may seem incredibly simple, but for the client, accessing their own answer to the question often requires deep thought. It’s only after that that implementation comes.

So, What If YOU Owned the Company?

There are two points I’d like to highlight, from the results of the Gallup Organization's Employee Engagement Index survey.

• 81% of Great Britain’s employees are either not engaged or actively disengaged with their work. Yes, 81%! (In the US, it’s slightly lower at 73%)
• This shows up as low employee retention, high absentee levels, and low productivity, and costs some £38 billion.

What are the same statistics for the company in which you work?

The reason given for so many employees being disengaged is that of poor management. Staff say that they don't know what is expected of them, their managers don't care about them as people, their jobs aren't a good fit for their talents, and their views count for little. The survey also found that employees feel they are far more productive if their supervisor focuses on their strengths and positive characteristics rather than their weaknesses. (Echoes of the topics covered in Inner Thinking Journal Issues 3 and 19 – do go and have a read)

So if you owned the company in which you work (and perhaps you do), what would you do about this?

The irony is that the first step is not about doing. There is already a lot of doing. The challenge is the bit before the doing – the thinking; and there isn’t enough of that going on before the doing!

Stop for a few minutes to think. If every single employee in your team or organisation was fully engaged...if they all felt valued, were in the right role for them... if everyone was having a great time and feeling that they GET to come to work, what would be different?

There are dozens of books on what makes a good leader. They would include skills and traits such as having a vision, listening, charisma, courage, being intuitive, honesty, inspiring, passionate, decisive, have high energy, energise others and so on.

That said, each one of us is different and unique. So your own expression of leadership will be different to someone else’s. Yet, the underlying desired outcome remains the same – to keep the people with whom you work fully engaged.

So put yourself in the shoes of the people who work for and with you, and imagine that you are the perfect leader. Now... as the perfect leader, how would you be being differently? How would you be thinking differently? What would you be saying differently? And how would you be behaving and acting differently? Finally, what would you be doing differently? In that order.

As Mahatma Gandhi said, "We must be the change we want to see in the world". Once again, the same message – start with yourself.

Action Points

1. Slow down and focus. Not everything needs to get done right now, if you really stop to think about it.

2. Prioritise ruthlessly. Ask yourself, "What is the outcome that is required?" and decide whether something is truly needed to achieve that outcome.

3. Set some time aside to think, and consider how it feels inside, to BE that leader. See and hear what’s different about you. What attributes would you have?

4. Now enjoy practising that.

Quote

"Leadership is practiced not so much in words as in attitude and in actions." - Harold Geneen, Founder, MCI Communications

"A leader is someone who steps back from the entire system and tries to build a more collaborative, more innovative system that will work over the long term." - Robert Reich

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