A common frustration amongst business owners is that employees often don’t grasp what it means to be “an owner”.  You probably have lived with and even accepted this frustration for many years now.

But if you are exploring employee ownership as part of your growth or succession plan, you will need to understand what is behind this frustration. And even more importantly, discover how to change this from a detriment to an advantage.

One of our Strategic Alliances is with Mr. Perry Philips of ESOP Builders. Perry owns the Canadian rights to “Ownership Thinking”, a program designed to encourage employees to think more like owners.

Here are some comments by Perry to help businesses achieve their potential.

Helping Business Achieve Their Potential 

There are always more great ideas from Ownership Thinking to help you run your business for ultimate success. The following are from Abraham Maslow’s wonderful book; Maslow on Management. They are important to remember as we create a great organization:

• Assume everyone is to be trusted
• Assume everyone is to be informed as completely as possible of as many facts and truths as possible
• Assume in all of your people the impulse to achieve
• Assume good will among all the members of the organization rather than rivalry or jealousy
• Assume an active trend to self-actualization
• Assume that everyone can enjoy good teamwork, friendship, good group spirit, and good belongingness.
• Assume hostility to be primarily reactive rather than character-based
• Assume that people are improvable
• Assume that everyone prefers to feel important, needed, useful, successful, proud, and respected – rather than unimportant, interchangeable, anonymous, wasted, unused, expendable, and disrespected.

The following are the values espoused by one of my favorite companies:

• Truth
• Trust
• Caring
• Forgiveness

The Four Agreements (by Don Miguel Ruiz):

• Be impeccable with your word
• Don’t make assumptions
• Don’t take anything personally
• Always do your best

Ownership Thinking and ESOP’s are important tools for Business Transition. To learn more about these tools call us and we will arrange for you to meet with Perry. Or, if you like, contact him directly and tell him the people at Deboski & Company sent you.

Perry Phillips, president of ESOP Builders. For more information on Ownership Thinking and how it can help your company. Call 416-645-0512 or email [email protected]