As an owner I want to know 2 critical things:

1. How is the business doing?
2. What can I do to impact the business?

Normally, owners sit at the top of the organizational chart with access to tons of information, much of it confidential. It has been my goal to engage all employees to think like owners. I believe that if I can create a sense of ownership for their slice of the organization, for their process, then it can have a significant impact. Thus, we must share enough information so that every employee can answer these two ownership questions. This does not necessarily mean that once you engage employees at all levels to think like owners, you must turn over all confidential information. We are in the process of creating key performance metrics for each area and in some cases for individual positions. This answers the first question.

The second question requires education. The education has surrounded four areas: financial/metric literacy, key vectors, initiatives and culture. I have spent much of the year slowly educating how the key metrics impact overall performance and how individuals contribute to those metrics. In addition to metrics, we have spent time discussing strategies, key company characteristics that set up apart, the most important projects we are working and finally how the culture inside the organization supports our overall growth. One of those cultural shifts is this idea of empowering employees with an ownership mentality.