Owner Vs Employee Mindset

There is a fundamental shift in attitude between being 'just an employee' or the 'owner of your job'.

- Craig Raath

“I have the privilege of working for a specialist consulting business where I have been able to see the impact on careers where employees have exhibited the owner mindset. This is of course only possible if they are given the opportunity to thrive, to innovate, to make mistakes and to be supported by a leadership culture that encourages learning and development. In my experience it is, without doubt, those employees who have cultivated the owner mindset who have excelled and gone on to greater successes,” says Craig Raath Executive Director at 21st Century. He explains and unpacks this concept.

WHAT IS AN OWNER MINDSET?

“An owner mindset is one where employees are personally invested in the fortunes of the organisation. Their drive comes more from an alignment of values than from the financial reward attributed to the job itself. It is a mindset that drives decision making, where sustainability, cost reduction and big picture thinking are all included in the process, especially when no-one is “looking over their shoulder”.

OWNERSHIP

For some organisations, creating the owner mindset is easy. What better way to align employee and shareholder interests and create an ownership culture than to make employees shareholders themselves? Having skin in the game helps to drive innovation and alignment to the business itself. In our business, culture and value alignment are key and one of the ways that we have created that culture is to make everyone an owner and the results have been remarkable.

For the majority of organisations, however, making everyone a shareholder is neither practical nor desirable, so what else is key to improving shareholder alignment and creating an environment where the owner mindset can thrive?