Getting into the management team of your company – Think like an ownerAuthor Tapan Rayaguru, Career Coach at Sunstone Business School

It is easy to be a spectator and be critical of a player than to get on the ground and score those runs or take those wickets. Your stakes as a spectator are low, the money you paid for the ticket and may be your time, but for the player everything is at stake his/her livelihood, fame, pride and future career. True strength of character shows when you can think like a player even when you are a spectator.

Translated into the corporate world, it is very easy to talk about your employer in the 3rd person and be critical of everything that is not right but conveniently ignore all successes that have led to you and others having a job in the first place. The day you start thinking like an owner of the company (think proprietor or partner or shareholder) is the day your journey of appreciation of how a business operates starts. You will start to see the big picture and not stay limited to only some policies that directly impact you.

Ask yourself these six questions to know how close (or far away) you are

1) Do you know simple publicly available facts about your company? a.All product/service lines and their contribution to the company’s overall revenue b.What was the turnover last quarter? Last year? c.Who are the key competitors? Key customers? d.Where all in the world does your company operate? Which are the bigger markets? Which geographies show the most promise?

2) Do you know what makes your business successful? a.Are profits the most important metric? Or is it revenue? b.Is retention of existing customers more important or acquiring new ones? c.Where is cost in all this? Do you need to drive down cost at any cost (pun intended)?

3) Does it hurt you personally when your company loses a bid / a client / a good employee? a.Does it matter? b.Do you feel it? Do you talk about it (as opposed to bitch about it)?

4) Do you feel happy (rather elated) when someone you compete with personally, does something that gets great results for the company? (crude cricket parallel would be does Sehwag feel happy when Shikhar Dhawan scores a century)

5) How much do you track your prior employers at a company level long after friendships with colleagues are gone?

6) What is the tone of your conversation in social situations with family/friends/acquaintances? Do you speak about your employer in a positive image even when you know all is not well? Do you delightfully bitch about the company using a 3rd person tone? Or would you rather keep off that topic?

I can hear the skeptics saying “why should I”. Well… really you don’t have to but if you can’t “think” like them you can never “be” them. Go figure….