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Showing Trust will ACHIEVE buy In team work & Ownership

Are you a business owner who feels that you are on your own? Do you feel that your staff lacks “Buy in”? Do you wish your staff worked better together?

I have some good news you’re not alone and some bad news it’s your fault.

Now for some more good news, you can “flip” the situation from problem to advantage. 

Before we move on it is worth me saying “your fault” is a term I have used only for emphasis. 

As a business owner you are a creator and should be immensely proud of your achievements to date.

However if you are in this situation it is of your making and I want you to understand why so that you can get back to enjoying yourself.

You could be forgiven for thinking that your company has grown around you and at times, in particular during economically tough times, it can feel as if it is about to consume you.

When a company is establishing itself necessity dictates that owners take control of all aspects of the business, at best outsourcing the accounts but even then having to be bookkeeper. 

As the company grows it becomes clear that you need help but when you get that help it can be hard to let go of the day to day running of just about everything. You have become used to it and you kid yourself that your new staff cannot be trusted from day one but day one becomes day 365 and you have still not let go. This process becomes more difficult with each new member of staff. 

What you find is that you are recruiting people and then just telling them what to do. You are BOSSING and you need begin LEADING It is this process that is fuelling the perceived lack of ownership, or buy in from your colleagues.

As your headcount grows you must move from violinist (fiddler) to conductor (coordinator) you can no longer play every instrument, and if you try, your new musicians will inevitably sit and watch you play badly.

In this environment your staff will either respond to your occasional screams of help, or leave! Either way you’re screwed!

So, what can you do?

There are several ways you can “flip” the situation to your advantage, one is by creation of teams. 

Get your staff involved to achieve buy in & teamwork.

Actions for you 

It may be hard to stand back after having complete control, and of course no one can do it like you! 

But if you let go, even of small tasks to begin with, I guarantee you will be presently surprised.

1- Delegate to Tasks Groups

No matter how small your company you can always create task groups to look at problems, processes and growth. Accept that you do not need to know everything. You should not want too!

Creating task groups encourages teamwork, gives a sense of belonging, responsibility and recognition. More importantly, task groups create change from the bottom up, which is where the knowledge of what needs to change is often clearest. 

2- Relax

There should be no rules. Don’t be tempted to tell them ‘what to do’ instead tell them ‘what you want to achieve’, give clear timelines but prepared to be flexible. Trust with all pre-existing rules is an important key not only for successful teamwork but also for taking ownership of their outcomes

3- Give them the Why

Explain the long-range plans of the company and why this task is important. This gives context to required actions. If the team understands where the task fits in and understands why it is important they will be more motivated.

4- Delegate 


Explain what you want to achieve and then let go. Trust the individuals and the team as a whole to complete their assigned tasks correctly and on time.

If you've set a project review meeting for next Tuesday, resist the temptation to ask for an update on Monday. Trust the team to meet the deadline.

If you trust, you will find the team will be eager to ask for your help should they get stuck, engagement will increase and teamwork will become the norm.

Team spirit is energising and unifying. Get it right and all will benefit.

 Feedback is always welcome so leave a comment or email me at rikki@thinking.co.uk  You can also visit my site www.Thinking.co.uk.