336 | The Evolution of Leadership: It is not YOUR company…It is OUR Company
The evolution of leadership has been coming for some time now. All things evolve. Markets evolve. People evolve. Leadership must evolve too. One of the most significant shifts is the focus on leaders to encourage others to feel like it is there company. It can be noticed in the words they use. Today I talk about how you should encourage others to say “our company” because when they feel like it truly is “our” company, they will show up in new ways. The evolution of leadership is here.
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The Evolution of Leadership: The Transcript
This is for founders.
Have you ever said, your company before? When you’re referencing the company that you have built, have you ever said it’s your company? Or have you felt odd when one of your employees said it was your company? Or the company? I bet it did feel a little bit odd because it is just a choice of words but what if everyone thought of it as our company? What if the people inside your organization didn’t think of it as your company but they said our company?
Hi my name’s Gene Hammett. I work with hyper-growth companies, I study this and I study the Inc. 5000 to really understand what does it take to manage that chaos of growth and I share back those messages with audiences just like you.
This is very specific to founders but if you were always talking about your company you could be eroding a little bit of trust with people. And I know it’s just a small word to put in there but if you change that to our company. If you changed every time you reference this and it would do something with trust. I know this I’ve seen it first hand. But here’s the other thing. Encourage everyone else to call it our company.
When you are really opening yourself up, not to have control over, that you built this and you defined it and you shaped it. It may be your company on paper but all the people that work there should look at what they’re doing as our company. And that one letter difference from your to our is a huge difference in people feeling like they have ownership.
See one of the things that happened in my research, when I talked to over a hundred Inc. 5000 leaders, the CEOs of these companies, and I talked to them about their goals and about the growth and getting people to take more responsibility. And they corrected me.
It’s not about responsibility it’s about ownership. And what I want you to think about is the simple word choice of your company versus our company. And if you can shift your own language to our company and you can get others to talk about it as our company, you will have more ownership from everyone in the business.
Now it is a small thing but you really want others to feel like that project is theirs and that the customer experience is their customers, you want them to think that the hundred dollars that they’re gonna spend on lunch for clients coming in is their money and you want ’em to spend it wisely. I encourage you to think about the language you use and watch what other peoples are used and make sure that you encourage people to say it’s our company.
I love when I see this shift inside of businesses because I do small things like this all the time and I notice things as a third party perspective that others don’t notice. And when I’m working with these executive team members you can see the difference over a few weeks or a few months and what happens inside people with the projects they take. So that’s my take today. Shift your language from your company to our company and you’ll see the difference in your culture.
Hi, I’m Gene Hammett. I work with hyper-growth companies to help them understand this chaos of growth and I could help you too. If you have any questions make sure you reach out. If you like this content make sure you share it with someone and as always lead with courage. And I’ll see you next time.
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