What Did You Hired? Slaves? Builders?

A slave at the working place is someone who obeys and not think, not creates. A builder creates and uses the necessary resources for his work to succeed inside. A slave is seeking the resources outside, expects that the boss and the others deliver to him all that she/he needs to succeed.

So, the question is, what did you hired? Slaves? Builders?

It is not realistic to believe that all your employees are builders but would be a miracle if your company wouldn't go bankrupt if all, including the leaders, would be slaves.

How can you bring your company to make the transition to an organization with a spirit of builders and not of slaves? 

First, as a founder, take a look to the leaders: are they builders? If not, you either make a crash course in training them how to be a builder and give them a deadline or a "lifeline" until when they become, act as a builder. OR you fire them! Warning: one should proof if this changing is from inside to outside, meaning that person became in its core a builder or is just a facade or a fake.

Second, the leader as builder starts to screen his team and find who is slave and who is builder. Even a slave should get a change to become a builder and should receive a "deadline" or a "lifeline".

Caveat

Regardless if someone is a slave or a builder it is essential that your employer adhere 100% to the core values and principles of your company. You might have employees that achieve their numbers, but if they do not act in synchronicity with the business DNA of the company (=values and principles) they will weaken your company on middle and long term. So act immediately and fire them, otherwise they will contaminate the rest of the organization.

Summary 

So you, as leader or founder, might be content to be the only one who think and create and all others are slaves. You might have in this case a company which is boring and that will operate in survival and "suicide" mode.

A company where building and creating is normative for everyone will grow, thrive and make a living and lively organism and not only an organization. In this setting you might probably discover entrepreneurs and trailblazers that would like to try new ideas, create

 new products and services that would change the world.

Last but not least an essential setting to succeed is to make everybody own their problems and ask them to solve them timely and diligently!

A slave is not a free person. A builder is a free person who allow freedom and fulfillment to become reality! 

Acknowledgement

 

The ideas from this article are sourced in products of Arthur Burk, founder and leader of the Christian think tank "Sapphire Leadership Group" (theSLG.com).