Equity

Guest editorial
By Josh Schneider, Director, Millennial Employee and Engagement Institute

This article was published in the February 2017 edition of NTEA News.

Josh Schneider will present the Generation Next Leadership Workshop & Networking Reception: The New Rules of Engagement on March 15 from 3–5 p.m. at The Work Truck Show^® 2017. He will also present the concurrent session, Culture: The Competitive Advantage, on March 15 from 8–9:15 a.m. Visit worktruckshow.com/schedule to learn more about these and other sessions and events at the Show.

One of the best ways to spot whether or not employees are engaged is to ask yourself this question: Are they inside or outside of the box?

You know the difference. There are those who do just enough to make sure the box gets checked for the day. No more, and we can only hope no less.

Then there are the others — those who check the box with the boldest, brightest Sharpie^® they can find. But they don’t stop there — they think and live outside the box, and their work and engagement show it. These are the men and women who drive our business forward.

So, how do we move people from just checking the box to thinking and thriving outside of it? Equity. No, not ownership of the company, but real ownership of a process, problem, opportunity or area of responsibility.

Years back, in my role as operations manager for an upfitter, there was one afternoon where we had 12 haulers lined up down the road while waiting for the six in our lot to unload. Our lot was already over capacity, and we were running out of space to even unload the additional haulers.

The lot employee came to me and asked what we were going to do. Instead of responding, I asked what he thought we should do to get out of this jam and stay organized. He had an idea, and after a few minutes of going back and forth, we had a game plan for how we could make this work.

As he went back out into the lot, he wasn’t following instructions. He was going to implement his plan and his idea. He had ownership of the problem.

When he initially asked what we were going to do, I realized it wasn’t going to be me wandering 40 acres of pavement looking for a van with a certain VIN. It wasn’t going to be me getting frustrated with a lost key or a last-minute switch requiring the lot team to move buried vans due to a reshuffle in the production order.

So, I had to find a way to give him equity so he would stay engaged and energized through the challenges ahead. Since it was his idea, he gladly operated outside of the box instead of just checking it. This helped keep production and shipping flowing on time

Equity gave this employee the engagement and excitement of the CEO.

We all have goals, dreams and an idea of what it would be like to do something that matters. Equity opportunities at work cause us to go beyond just checking the box.

Perhaps this was my finest hour as a leader. I’ll have to tell you about the mistakes at my sessions in March.