I’m a very big believer in ownership. If you want your employees do do better, do more, and give a crap, then give them ownership. Foster their personal and professional growth and development. You can’t force anyone do do anything, so don’t try. Instead, you can do much more by allowing people to be part of your brand (personal or professional). If someone wants to support you, who you are, and what you’re doing, let them.
I know that if one of the first things that someone I meet says to me is, “I love your bow tie,” then that’s it. They have bought into my personal brand. I don’t have to sell them anything. I don’t have to do anything. I’ve allowed them to have ownership in me, as a person and as a personal brand. Now, we can both focus on how we can help one another, get things done, and have fun in the process. What’s better than that?
Last week I was approached by Josh Crain (@thejoshcrain) on Twitter. He wanted to know if he could use my personal brand. It instantly piqued my interest, but I was unsure what all he was going for, so we met. We talked in detail about a website he built, based on me - dallastweets.com. Josh is a web guy and a very forward thinker. To be honest, I didn’t know him that well until Wednesday. I was flattered when he reached out to me and wanted to do this project. Let the record state, that in no way did I try to convince Josh to do this for me. This idea and concept was totally his own. I just hope we are both able to reap the benefits. It is, after all, his idea. A great one too, I might add.
The website he built changes, depending on what you use to view it. On a computer it looks one way, but totally different on an iPad, iPhone, etc. Josh could explain that side much better than I can. The point is, it was designed to change, and it does. Reach out to me and Josh via Twitter and don’t forget to use the #dallastweets hash tag.
How do you offer ownership?
