Guest Blogger: William R.
Mansfield, Founder, Mansfield Institute for Public Policy and Social Change,
Inc.
Where are the great thinkers, creators, innovators and entrepreneurs?
Everyone must be his
or her own boss! Real leaders are their own bosses. It is our responsibility to
encourage and teach others to be their own boss. Real leaders develop free-thinking,
innovation and value ownership for all. The result is high output, positive
productivity and innovation. However the traditional American workplace does
not promote ownership. Most bosses, managers and supervisors today would rather
control their employees.
Let’s take a
close look at the subject; “Discipline: Being Your Own Boss”, it
totally aligns with the “Just Third Way” philosophy of Own or Be
Owned. Being your own boss takes
“self-discipline” — in other words, self-control, personal responsibility and
constant improvement directed toward our desired goal. Unfortunately, today’s system discourages the spirit of
entrepreneurship and the risk and reward of ownership.
We’re taught in school and college to
follow directions rather than to question, think critically or become
problem-solvers. We’re “educated” to prepare us for work in a particular field,
and to meet deadlines and objectives that someone else has set for us. So we do
our assignments, take our tests, and graduate (hopefully). Then we’re turned
loose to find a job that will pay off our student debt and monthly bills.
If we’re
fortunate enough to find a job, we’re expected to show up on time and do what’s
in our job descriptions. We do what the boss tells us to do, even when we know
that something’s not right or could be done a better way. For most of us, it’s
not our job to think of the big picture or the long-term.
In today’s
workplace, most of us have no power over how our jobs and financial wellbeing
will meet the challenges of advancing technology and the global economy. When
we decide to become our own boss, we gain a measure of power and responsibility
over our own outcomes.
For instance,
when we start a new business as an Entrepreneur, we have to think every day
about how to deliver value to our customers . . . or we’ll go out of business. We must
consider the long-range success or failure of the whole enterprise, and the
impact on other people, including our workers and customers.
A business owner
soon learns that being one’s own boss, being responsible to oneself, is a lot
more empowering — and intimidating — than leaving responsibility to someone
else and being able to pass the buck. An
owner quickly realizes that being self-disciplined day in, day out, is crucial
to running a business successfully. The habit of self-discipline accelerates
our personal growth and ability to succeed in the market place, and thereby
reap the rewards of that success.
Yet we need to go
one step beyond “self” discipline, to “social” discipline — how our systems can bring out the best in everyone by
building virtues like self-discipline into the ecosystem of the enterprise. We
need to shape our workplace environment to instill and reward good habits such
as responsibility, initiative, honesty, creativity, and courage, not only in
ourselves but in others as well.
In running a
business, it’s not enough to be the only person who is punctual, responsible,
driven toward excellence and delivering the best possible service to our
customers. We need everyone in the company to take “ownership” of the company’s
success. For that we must become not just bosses, but leaders.
As leaders, we
can help instill the virtue of self-discipline in others, enabling them to
develop their hidden potential and earn a personal stake in the success of the
whole.
But as servant
leaders, we can help guide everyone in the organization to create and sustain a
culture and institutional environment of virtue and ownership. This goes beyond
getting people to “think like owners.” It’s about enabling them to become
owners sharing fully in the risks and rewards, rights and responsibilities of
the company. That’s where social justice — organizing with others to establish “self-disciplined
institutions” — can bring out the best in each of us and help us to succeed
together.
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