We’ve spent a lot of time over the past several years talking about employee ownership and what it means for you, your colleagues, and our company.
There’s no denying the sense of empowerment and control that comes with having a tangible stake in a company’s success. But at MN Builders, we also celebrate the other ways an ESOP enhances our organization, as well as the mental and physical well-being of our many part-owners.
Because to us, an ESOP is about a lot more than just owning a piece of the company.
It’s about owning all of our work.
Owning the way we collaborate with each other, our partners, and our clients.
Owning an unwavering standard of excellence in everything we do is so critical to our company’s reputation.
True ownership of all the above has a ripple effect that doesn’t just affect what we do, but how we think. We all have different jobs at MN, and no two days are the same, but a closer look at some of the familiar situations we face on a regular basis shows how thinking like an owner—and not just an employee—makes work, life, and our bottom line better for everyone.
Is a new MN team member reaching out to you for help on a task?
We like to think we hire pros who would gladly help train them up just because they’re good people. But when you think like an owner, and recognize that the quicker that person gets trained, the better the company performs, it makes that extra work just a little bit easier.
Odds are we’ve all worked at places where complaining about co-workers is not just routine, but ultimately management’s problem to deal with. It’s different at an ESOP, where people recognize that helping peers resolve differences among themselves is a more efficient, enjoyable way to keep people happy and get work done.
Same with difficult clients. We all have at least one (no names, please). It’s human nature to observe a co-worker getting run through the wringer and think, “Thank God I don’t have to deal with that today.” It’s an owner’s nature to remember that great customer service is core to our success and help this co-worker think about ways to effectively serve this customer with typical MN Builders panache.
I’m sure we all have different scenarios we’ve experienced that illustrate the same point: thinking like an owner—in every sense of the word—is critical to our ESOP’s success.
We’re not saying it’ll always be easy. It takes a conscious effort to think like an owner. But with enough time and practice, owner think becomes a habit that will positively affect every aspect of your job, your work relationships, and ultimately your future at MN Builders.