A leader shares his team's decision-making habit: ask "What would an owner do?" Framing choices as if you owned the business sharpens focus on customers, protects reputation, and makes you cost-conscious. It changes how you treat colleagues and leads to clearer, more responsible decisions.
Owners versus others. I was speaking to somebody that I hired many years ago recently, and he said one of the things that stood out to him in my leadership style was I always asked whenever he had a question about something that he needed to do, I said, what would an owner do? In other words, what would an owner of this business do if he or she stood in front of the decision? So essentially, the point was start thinking about whatever you're doing as if you own this business. How does that change your decision-making process? You think more clearly about who the customers are and your reputation. You think more about— better about the costs and how you want to run the business. You think about your employees in a different way. So anybody at any level in any organization, if you start thinking about What would I do if I was an owner of this business? That changes your perspective, and I believe that makes you able to, to make better decisions.
