I see people building corporate culture manuals saying that employees need to act like owners. I don’t like that. I own companies since 2002, and I can assure you that most people don’t want to act like owners. And they should not need!

As an owner you need to take care about a lot of things. You are the last person to see real money, you are always in “building / take care mode”. You can decide to work 10 hours per week. Also, you can decide to work 100 hours in one week.

But… you should not ask the same thing for people working for you. You can’t expect people to work hard as you do. But… you can expect people being responsible for their current roles. You can make sure people have the resources they need to deliver the activities they own.

I’m learning more about not bringing the difference between responsible and accountable. If you are responsible you are responsible for some specific activity or for taking care about some artifact. You have metrics you care about. Metrics that can help you guide your work and bring consistency to the game.

If you want someone to act like an owner, make them your partner. Share some company equity. Share the good and the bad.

— Daniel Wildt

Extra: I was checking an old video from Gary Vaynerchuk about owner mentality. And I need to share an extra material, from Gary sharing some leadership tips.