Quick Monday tip: Think like you own the company
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How do you stay motivated at work?
What do you do when your boss doesn’t tell you what to do?
How do you get yourself into doing something when all you hear from your superiors is small tasks that are due sometimes “as soon as possible”?
You have too choices:
- You become passive: You let your days pass, surf the web, maybe look at some of your old work and complain about not having anything to do. The salary runs anyway so it’s none of your business to get things done.
- You think like you own the company: If you were the owner of the company and there would be a situation like that, you wouldn’t be wandering around mindlessly, but looking for ways to make the business grow. Finding new ways to expand and doing your best to learn the skills needed to tackle future challenges.
In many companies no one will come and complain to you if you choose the first option.
But for your own sake, choosing the second one makes much more sense.
- It makes you feel more useful so that you don’t feel that your days are wasted doing nothing.
- You learn new things that can help you on your career path. As an owner you would look outside the boundaries of your profession, so don’t be limited to learning only about the very thing you do every day. If you are a Java programmer, you might want to check out some Ruby on Rails. If you usually do some desktop programming, it can make sense to check out Facebook. Or if you are a programmer why not learn some marketing skills as well?
- You learn how business works. When you look closely at how the business on your field evolves you learn to see how the work you are putting in from day to day affects the world and the market. If you are working on a side business on your spare time, this knowledge will turn out to be priceless.
- And last but not least, your co-workers, your bosses and everyone around you will appreciate your attitude and see you as someone to trust and whose ideas are important to listen to.
So, here’s my tip for this Monday morning: If you want to motivate yourself to work happily through your days, imagine that you own the company you work for - and act accordingly.
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August 28th, 2007 at 11:23 am
Hmm…
I have found these kind of advices pretty common nowadays. Not that they are bad…but sometimes other reasons just force you to choose option 1. for e.g. office politics, immature supervisors etc.
p.s. Well, if you start thinking as you own the company and start showing interest, people may just think (out of insecurity) that you are trying to be too smart.
August 28th, 2007 at 11:35 am
Hey Anonymous,
You actually do have valid points there. In most questions (and this one is not an exception) there are two sides:
By working as if you own the company you can make your days more interesting, get more done and be appreciated more.
But at the same time there is the risk that when your boss notices your attitude he starts taking advantage of it: more work, more responsibility, more time at the office, less time at home… And so on.
And also if you start believing too much in your idea of owning the company you’ll forget the fact that in reality, you don’t own the company - and instead of working for yourself your working for someone else…
So, I wouldn’t suggest this idea as anything more than a quick productivity trick. If you need a boost, imagine what you’d do as an owner… And make sure you don’t really believe in the idea.
What do you think? Does that make sense?
August 28th, 2007 at 4:33 pm
Jarkko,
>But at the same time there is the risk that when your boss notices your >attitude he starts taking advantage of it: more work, more responsibility, >more time at the office, less time at home… And so on.
I think that will happen when there is generally no shortage of work.
But I agree completely with your other point. In fact, I have just started reading your blog since last few days only and I enjoy reading your posts. Keep up.
Anyways, as usual, all that matters is you should know where to draw the line.
I feel anything that you do, whether act or react, as long as you know where to STOP, you should be happy.
August 29th, 2007 at 8:11 am
2. is quite difficult if your ideas for the company are very different from the ideas of the actual owners. It’s e.g. very difficult to improve the information security at a company where the management believes Internet and all information systems are safe as houses… The end result is a lot of frustration, worse than option 1. In that case I wholeheartedly recommend a) switching to a company where what your skills can bring is appreciated b) starting your own.
August 29th, 2007 at 9:27 am
Lynoure: True. I think it’s all about following your values and making sure that you work for a company (or even better, yourself) that appreciates the same things as you do.
BTW, your comment about internet security reminds me of a company we both know pretty well… ;)
March 7th, 2008 at 5:05 pm
It’s possible that I’m just being stupid, but I think there is no reason to do any extra work if it isn’t your own business. You just said it yourself: “The salary runs anyway”. That’s why I’m really starting to run my own business, there is no way I could stay motivated in normal nine-to-five job.
March 7th, 2008 at 5:26 pm
@Samuel: No, you’re not being stupid. I agree with you 100%. And like I say in a comment above, I wouldn’t recommend this tip as nothing more than a quick tip to increase productivity during those 9-5 hours.
In fact, since I wrote this article in August I have been constantly moving towards more and more to the same direction as you, finding it harder to stay motivated working for someone else.
But the thing is that since right now I still have to work for someone else, I try to do my best to trick myself into staying motivated. And for doing that, a trick like this one can help :)