Episode #50
Psychological Ownership. Why Your People Don't Feel It the Way You Do.
Can you give someone ownership, or can you only invite them to find it? This episode is about psychological ownership, the feeling that something is yours, and why it is stronger than the legal kind. Equity, options, profit sharing, a bonus tied to the numbers. None of it is a mistake. "Those things are fair. They're often the right thing to do. And let's face it, in a lot of companies, they're long overdue." They are also all outside the person, and the feeling we are after is inside them. Here is the stake. "I don't think the performance you're looking for is outside your company waiting to be hired. I think much of it is already there." It is sitting in people who could bring far more than they currently bring, and what is missing is often not effort. It is the relationship they have with the work. In this episode, we explore what happens inside a person when something becomes theirs, why that changes how they think, feel and behave, why the usual ways of manufacturing ownership do not work, and one twenty minute conversation you can have this week with a single direct report. In this episode, we explore: Why "a share certificate is a legal fact" and nobody has ever defended one the way they defend themselves What actually happens inside a person as "this is mine" quietly becomes "this is me" Two questions to ask a direct report, in the order that makes them work Why "you're not collecting answers, you're watching what happens to them" How the same ownership that makes somebody formidable can make them territorial, defensive and unable to hand anything over "Can you give someone ownership, or can you only invite them to find it?" is not only a founder's question. It belongs to the manager whose team does the job and goes home, to the executive who cannot work out why a capable group is only half present, and to anyone who has watched someone treat a side project or a parent teacher organization as though the place were theirs. It is also a question to turn around. You legally own your company. Do you psychologically own it the way you did in the first year? If you want people who think, feel and act more like owners, without becoming possessive or territorial, this episode offers a place to start that has almost nothing to do with money. A note on the term. Bhavesh arrived at "psychological ownership" independently, in his own work, without exposure to the research. The same term had already been in use in organizational research since the early 2000s (Pierce, Kostova and Dirks, 2001). What he presents here is his own, original thinking. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Chapters 0:00 Why Your People Don't Feel Ownership the Way You Do 0:33 Who Acts Like the Place Is Theirs? 1:11 What's Your Biggest Problem? 2:59 Do You Need All the Answers? 3:34 What If Money Were Off the Table? 5:29 What Are You Actually Watching For? 7:01 Can Equity Create Ownership? 8:07 Does This Feeling Have a Name? 9:29 Do You Still Own It the Way You Did in Year One? 10:21 What Happens When Something Becomes Yours? 11:52 When Does Mine Become… Me? 13:22 Formidable… or Territorial? 14:43 What Changes When You Can See It? 16:48 How Can Two Odd Questions Do Anything? 18:37 Who Asks You the Questions? 19:16 Where Is the Performance You're Looking For? ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Episode Show Notes and Deep Dive https://www.awayre.com/psychological-ownership-why-employees-dont-act-like-owners/ Follow Bhavesh Naik Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bhaveshnaik/ Be a Guest ♀️ https://www.awayre.com/business-philosopher-within-you-podcast-guest/ Take Founder Dependency Snapshot https://www.awayre.com/founder-dependency-snapshot/ Music by Yrii Semchyshyn (Thank You!) https://www.patreon.com/yuriisemchyshyn
