Joining a peer group can somewhat help, but the real help will come from your organization — if you let it.
Irina Rokosz
I constantly hear and read how lonely CEOs are, and I know this, and I agree. The majority of people around us are not business owners — they are employees; they don’t think like business owners, and they don’t understand the business owners’ problems. Joining a peer CEO group can help only somewhat: other CEOs can give you a pat on the back, or provide you with a different perspective, and it’s a nice networking opportunity altogether. But they don’t have skin in the game — in your game. Put frankly, they don’t really care.
The people impacted by what you do — those are the people who really care. In other words, your employees. And yet, they seem to just sit around and wait for you to make a decision and tell them what to do. They don’t offer any initiative or assistance. Why is that?
You can ask them, but I can also give you the answer: They don’t think they have the power to influence anything. And they’re right. The current management system — which you’ve implemented in your company too, since it’s what 99.9% of companies know and use — doesn’t give them that power. It only gives that power to you.
So, how do you share the power? Well, let’s reverse-engineer it: What gives you the power? The fact that you’re the owner. On paper, you don’t even own 100% of your business because you have investors, but you do feel total ownership from Day 1. Look around you, specifically at kids: they get so angry when another kid takes THEIR toy. Everyone seems so much more invested if it’s THEIR thing.
That’s why, to get your employees to care, you have to figure out how to make them owners of what they do. There are different ways of achieving that*, and you have to experiment to find what works for you. But only after you achieve it will you truly have a team that supports you. Until then, you will unfortunately be alone — because you haven’t let anyone share the journey with you.
* For inspiration, see the following resources:
More resources here.