In my recent interactions with Founders, they have highlighted their struggles with the fact that their team members don’t take ownership and responsibility like them.
In order to get to the root, here are some key questions that the founders need to ask themselves :
• Do they really Respect and Trust (as in integrity and competence) their team members “Dil se”
• If the founders’ roles were reversed, what is the kind of supervision and freedom would the founders accept, would they like to be micromanaged.
• Do we encourage team members to take ownership and have we created an environment of intrapreneurship
• Does the founder encourage team members to take risk and provide them adequate authority, compensation, and opportunities for learnability and growth
• Have they clarified the Purpose, Values, Goals and Timelines, and how frequently do they change priorities and timelines
• Are the tools, capabilities and resources being provided timely to deliver outcomes
• How frequent is the communication with the team members to understand their needs, aspirations respect for their time and work-life balance
While these may sound very common sensical but these get ignored amid continuous pressures and challenges that the founders have to face on a daily basis, my view is that if we can answer these and any other questions, we will create a company of intrapreneurs who will deliver amazing outcomes.
February 2020
