How to Empower Employees to Have an Ownership Mentality

Build a Team of A-Players Who Get the Job Done Without You

As a business owner, employees will be your biggest asset or frustration.

Business owners are often consumed with the thoughts of their business from the moment they wake up until they go to bed. Failure is not an option; you work tirelessly to achieve success, but it's just a job for many employees.

They clock in, clock out, and if things don't work out, they can easily find something else.

They lack accountability, are not proactively solving problems, and don't perform to their potential.

This is frustrating, but it doesn't have to be this way.

By creating a culture of ownership, you can empower your employees to have an ownership mentality, making them more invested in the business's overall success.

It will also allow you as a business owner to focus on what you do best, knowing that your team is working together to achieve the same goals.

Here are the five steps to creating a culture of ownership in your business.

Step 1: Define What an A-Player Looks Like

To build a high-performing team, you must hire individuals who align with your organization's values and possess the necessary skills. It's not just about the technical expertise; it's about finding people who fit your company culture and are invested in its success.

Does your company have Core Values? If so, does everyone know them, and are you using them actively in your hiring & management process? Values are not something you put on a wall and stare at; they are used in the interview process and used to reward & recognize employees, and for those that are not a Core Value fit, it's a way to make sure you don't bring on bad applies in the first place, and fire those that aren't a culture fit as quickly as possible.

Values are not created in the C-Suite, or something the owner puts on paper; it's something the entire company, especially the key leaders, come up with. It's who you are.

How do you create Core Values for the first time or revisit your current ones to ensure everyone is bought in?

Sit your team down in a room, and have each key leader write down the following:

Favorite teammate/co-worker on the current team?
Favorite person, they have ever worked with?
Somebody they look up to and admire and aspire to be like? It could be a family member or friend?
Then have them write down "why," they wrote down their name.

When your team goes through this process, they will have written down the characteristics and values of the people they aspire to be like or some of their favorite people they have worked with.

By getting thoughts on paper and working together to sort, organize, and simplify, you can create values your team is on board with.

Does your company have core values?
Do you actively use those values in hiring, firing, rewarding, and recognizing?
Does your team, the key leaders, believe in those values, are they bought in?

Step 2: Hire for Values First, Skill Set Second

Hiring for Values

Once you have established your Core Values, hiring individuals who embody those values is crucial.

During the interview process, take your perspective hire through a similar exercise as above; you are looking to see who they admire, look up to, and the favorite people they have worked with.

This helps you assess if their values align with your organization's values.

Who did they write down?

What was their reasoning?

If they wrote down traits and characteristics aligning with your values, you might have a value fit.

Hiring individuals who align with your values creates a cohesive and motivated workforce. Skills can be developed and honed over time, but aligning values from the start sets the foundation for long-term success.

Hiring for Skill

Part 1 - Tell Me

Now that you have someone that is a culture fit, does that person's skillset match the job you are looking for them to fill?

I ask people the following questions during the interview to determine their skills.

"If you had to write down your superpower, the thing that made you unique and special, no one else can do that thing better than you; what would it be?"
"What job would you hire yourself for if you owned your own business?"
"What things would you do for that business that would add the most value?"
"If you could wake up, create your dream role in this company, and only do three things, what would those be?"

When I interview people, I don't care about the job I am hiring for; I care about the job they want.

The job that they have confidence that they would be able to do well.

If the job I have open is not the job they want and that matches their superpower, I must move on.

Part 2 - Verify It

It's one thing for someone to say, "Hey, this is my superpower; this is the job you should hire me for," but I need to verify it before I hire.

This is the process I use to ensure people have that superpower & are a skill set fit; this is part of a process documented in a book called Top Grading by Bradford Smart, which I will simplify here.

Note that past performance often predicts the future. So I want to dig deep into what this person has done in the past, go job by job, and ask the below questions.

The first time I saw a similar process done like this, I was advising a recruiting firm and saw the CEO interview a prospective employee —a two-hour interview. I thought the person was a perfect fit one hour and thirty minutes in.

Twenty minutes later, this guy is in tears, realizing he doesn’t want the job. If he took it, he'd be miserable.

He was only interested because his wife wanted him to get a job, and money was tight.

He put on a good show for the first hour and a half.

He would have done an okay job, but he would have been miserable, and miserable that people would eventually burn out and quit and retention.

These are the questions you ask… For each job on their resume.

Why did you take the job?

You are looking at their motivations and why they wanted that previous opportunity; how does that align with your opportunity for them?

Could you tell me about your successes and accomplishments and how you did it?

With the question of successes and accomplishments, you're digging deep to see what they have done and how they did it.

Mistakes and failures, did they learn? Are they self-aware?

Could you tell me about your mistakes and your failures?
I am looking to see if they are self-aware, did they learn from their mistakes, and take responsibility?

Lots of seemingly successful people piggyback on the coattails of others, you want to make sure this person is the real deal.

And if they've accomplished something similar that you need them to do for you, they can help you.

Next, I ask...

What did they like most about that job?

The things that they liked about that, could that be true if they came to work for you? What did they like least about that job? If they didn't like the things there, would they experience similar things here?

What is the name of your supervisor, and what do you think their strengths and weaknesses were?

I want to know what they're looking for in a boss.

Do you, as a leader, have those weak points? Is that why they wanted to leave? Is it the same reason they left, might be a similar why they would leave you one day?
What do you think their supervisor at that job would say your strengths were? What about your weaker points?

And then why did you leave that job?

Because I want to figure out why did they leave?
Was it on their own accord? Did they get fired? Like, what happened?

Follow this process, and ask these questions, and you will get what you need to see if they are an A player.

Part 3 - Show It

When general managers and coaches look to sign or draft players for an NFL or MLB team, they go to a scouting combine, baseball showcase, or a game and watch them play. They want to see whoever they plan to hire in action before they hire them.

I don't know what that looks like in your business, but craft something unique.

It could be simply staging your biggest problem and see if they know how to solve it.
It could be showing them what you want to accomplish, a goal, and seeing if they can create a plan to make it happen.

Tell them what you want to be done and ask how they would make it happen. Step by Step.
Remember, the past often predicts the future.

See if the problems you need them to solve, they have solved those in other businesses.
See if the things you want them to accomplish are similar to what they have done in the past.

Ask them for specifics, get detailed… Tell them about the job, and ask them...what would you do.
On the first day
In the First month
During First quarter

Step 3: Hire for Vision Fit

In addition to values fit and skills, it's essential to consider vision fit when hiring new team members. Vision fit refers to the alignment between the candidate's personal vision and your company's vision.

Understanding a candidate's aspirations and long-term goals allows you to assess if the role you are offering can help them achieve what they desire.

During the interview, ask candidates about their vision for the future. Paint a picture of where they see themselves in three years and the accomplishments they hope to achieve.

By exploring their vision, you can determine if the role aligns with their aspirations and if they are likely to be motivated and committed to long-term success within your organization.

Remember, when employees see how their vision aligns with the opportunities your company provides, they are more likely to take ownership, be proactive, and contribute to the organization's growth.

Don't make the mistakes most companies make…

Organizations have their vision, where they want to be, and what they want to accomplish.

Most people ask, "How can this person get me what I want?
How can this person "make the vision of our business become a reality?"
Rather than, "How can I help make their Vision true."

People don't care about you until they know you care about them.

Get clear on what the person you are sitting in front of wants, then ask yourself by helping them get that, can I get what I want & need?

Step 4: Give them a “Vision Map” and Get out of the Way

Before I get into the Vision Map and why this might be one of your favorite tools, I have a confession.

Early in my career, no one would do things the way I wanted. I also knew it would be better if I just did it myself... every job, it seemed like I could perform better than my team.

It took me years to realize that there are multiple ways to do a job, and just because I do it one way doesn't mean everyone has to do it my way. Even the result, I learned that not everything had to be a 10 out of 10; there is no such thing as a perfect business or person.

An 8 out of 10 is sometimes good enough.

If I was offboarding tasks from my plate to others, I had to admit that no one might be able to achieve the same results I could if I did that job, but If I keep that mentality, I would never be able to remove myself from day to day.

I had to learn how to define success and ensure I got people who were both a value fit and a skill set match.

Clearly Defining Success - The Vision Map

When I had challenges in one of my early start-ups, I brought in an advisor; he was probably the 4th one I hired, the previous three hadn't achieved the things I wanted, and I realized I only wanted to work with people with a solid track record of success.

So when he came in, I was burnt out. I was hyper-emotional about my business, my identity was wrapped up in it, and as a result, I couldn't lead and empower my team the way they deserved.

He locked me into a room for a couple of hours; I talked about my team and how people were not getting the results I wanted.

So then he had me write down what did success look like for each team member, and for the first time, I put on paper, what winning looked like and also put down some #'s and metrics, until then success was in my head, and what I thought was a success, wasn't what my team thought was a success.

Thus the disconnect. How could my team meet my expectations if my expectations were clear, communicated, and consistently discussed?

So that day, we created a "vision map" that allowed me to answer four questions about each role in our business; once that was detailed, it was rolled out to the team, and now we could all move forward together on making that vision happen.

Question 1: What does success look like- what must be true when the job is well done?
Question 2: What impact will this make?
Question 3: What do we want to achieve? (KPIs)
Question 4: What happens if you fail to execute?

If you are a sports person, like myself, you're used to the #'s telling you how well you are doing, but I see so many businesses that need to improve in data & analytics.

Question #3 will be your favorite question because I am sure the last thing you want to do is micromanage your team.

So if you can answer each of those first two questions and get clear on question #3, using hard facts and figures, you can truly let go and watch the team make it happen.

Question 3 "What do you want to achieve" Let's put on paper the #'s that matter.

I like to track both leading ad lagging indicators.

Leading indicators are key metrics that provide insights into your business's performance and potential success.

Unlike lagging indicators that show the results after the fact (wins and losses in sports), leading indicators allow you to proactively identify areas of improvement before they impact your bottom line.

Focusing on leading indicators can uncover underlying issues affecting your team's performance.

How strong is the data component of your business?
Are you running your business by the numbers?
Do your team members understand and embrace how they are measured?
Do they have data that tells them if they are doing a good job?
Based on a stat sheet, can you tell who the high performers are in your company and who needs to improve?
If you were to lock each of your team members in a room by themselves, I ask them, how do you know you are doing well? Would they say exactly what you would say?

If I asked them, what are the few #’s that tell you if you are performing and being an All-Star in your role? Would they be clear on what those #’s are, are those the things that matter?

Step 5: Empowerment and Ownership

Once you have built a team of individuals who align with your values, possess the necessary skills, and share a vision for success, nurturing and reinforcing their ownership mentality is essential.

Provide regular feedback, recognition, and rewards based on aligning with core values and achieving goals.

Recognize and celebrate employees who demonstrate initiative, take responsibility for their work, and go above and beyond to contribute to the organization's success.

Empower your employees by allowing them to make decisions and solve problems independently.

Encourage open communication and create a safe space for sharing ideas and opinions.

Involving employees in decision-making will make them feel valued and more committed to the organization's success.

Conclusion

The key to having a successful business that doesn't rely on the owner to do everything is having a team that can be trusted to get the job done on time and with excellence. However, making tweaks to the business is necessary for this to happen.

As the owner, you don't have every superpower necessary to ensure your business vision reaches its reality.

In baseball, you have five-tool players. Very few have it; business is the same.
If you have a company with a tremendous vision and want help, I want to talk to you.

The common mistake I see is that they get this type of knowledge, sit on it, absorb it, and wait to take action. But if you're a growth-minded and open-minded business owner looking for help implementing some of the concepts book a call.

-Casey Cavell

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