1. Scan the session QR Code on the door or directional signage nearby
2. Engage in the session content for all 60 minutes.
3. Input the secret word in the CE Session Survey. The secret word will be revealed in the speaker's presentation.
4. Complete the CE Survey.
The ICC was created in 2022 with the vision of sharing, collaborating, and improving ESOP educational resources. The goal is to build engagement, strengthen ownership culture, and eventually create a repository of ideas that can be shared with all NCEO members.
1. Recruiting
2. Onboarding
3. Retention
a. Recognition
b. Purpose and community continuous connection to other employees
c. Pain points
4. Retention:
a. What do your retention efforts entail?
b. How are you measuring Retention?
c. Events and celebrations: Remote and in-person
5. Resources
a. NCEO
b. Innovative Communications Coalition
1. Scan the session QR Code on the door or directional signage nearby
2. Engage in the session content for all 60 minutes.
3. Input the secret word in the CE Session Survey. The secret word will be revealed in the speaker's presentation.
4. Complete the CE Survey.
Unintentional Intentional but Ineffective Intentional and Effective
• People
• Amenities
• Dress Code
• Benefits
• Location
• Office Environments
• Safety
• Trust
• Results
• Core Values
• Work Ethic
• Openness
• Differences
• Enjoyment
• Flexibility
• Personal Space
• Order
• Narrative
• Biases
• Authority
• Purpose
• Mission
• Learning Opportunities
• Expectations
• Vision Statement
• Discipline
• Decision
Making style
An environment where people feel they have a stake in the organization and its future
What does this look like? Employees:
• Are engaged! They do their best work even when no one is watching
• Take initiative and make decisions accordingly
• Think and act like owners
• Show leadership skills
Employees who feel like owners aren’t just found…they’re nurtured and grown!
Ingredients:
The what, not the how
Financial stake in the company (and education around how success is linked to individual performance and vice versa)
Transparency around business decisions and sharing company data (and education around how to understand this)
Communication and collaboration
Opportunities for employee involvement
Foundation of trust
If you feel you already have all the critical ingredients, think about how to up-level your existing systems and further mature your culture of ownership.
One way communication
Linear, limited, asynchronous, sender to receiver
Lack of clarity
Misalignment, misunderstanding, slow decision-making
Micromanaging
Rehashing decisions, daily activity
Lack of opportunities
logs/updates, collaboration to a fault Reactive/stagnant employees/teams, boredom, turnover
Secrecy
Lack of trust, hesitance to ask questions, fear, ‘rumor mill’
Transformation
Approach
“The ROI of Organizational Culture” and “ The Employee Journey, Data, and Organizational Impact ”
Understand the full picture of your culture via Glassdoor reviews or an internal survey
Ginny Vanderslice
• Cofounder of Praxis Consulting
• 30+ years working with ESOP companies
• Focus on Ownership Culture, Leadership Development & Succession
• Creator & Academic Director of Executive Leadership Program for ESOP CEOs at University of Pennsylvania; Sponsored by The ESOP Association
• Co-author of Leadership Development and Succession Planning article in a recent NCEO publication (available at the NCEO table)
Carolyn Stanworth
• President and CEO of BL Companies since 2010
• Primary driver responsible for planning and instituting the ESOP at BL Companies
• Champions the multi-year Leadership Development initiative and succession planning efforts
• Works with senior leaders, managers, and external consultants in the implementation and enhancement of the shared ownership culture at BL Companies
BL’s integration of LD and Succession
Principles of integrating these initiatives
Q&A
• New Perspectives
• Un-tried, no history
• Known entity
• Lack CEO experience
• Experience not available inside
• Values/ style risk
• Career path; professional growth
• Internal competition/ potential politics
• Generate excitement
• Culture risk; unaware of politics
• Continuity: know company, business, culture & stakeholders
• Challenge re peers
• Easier to make hard changes; not tied to history
• Fail more often
• Know any potential landmines
• Know about gaps; need development
Both are core to a strong Ownership Culture
• Employee owners want professional development opportunities
• Mitigates risk if someone leaves; increases leadership capacity overall Culture sustainability; Business continuity
• Know the value of the culture
• Have the skills to support the culture
Steadily increasing overall leadership capacity
Preparing for company growth
Lower Risk
Ongoing risk mitigation for all key positions
Competencies: Skills & Knowledge
Executive Planning Aligning
Leader
Manager
Supervisor
Engagement
Delegation
Accountability
Team building
Individual contributor
Listening Feedback Conflict
Power Dynamics
Decision Making
Coaching
Strategic Thinking
Systems View
Leading Change
Programs can be designed for & integrated across all levels
• Interconnected content, linked to culture
• Common language and foundational skills consistent with culture
• With increasing responsibility:
» Deeper self-understanding
» Increase skill complexity & mastery
» Broaden focus
» More difficult challenge assignments
Professional Services Firm
Architecture
Engineering
Environmental
Land Surveying
380+ Employees in 16 Offices in 11 States
• CT, NY, MD, PA, OH, MA, NC, NJ, RI, TX, FL
100% Employee Owned - ESOP in 2006
38 Years in Business
• Stronger team and leadership bench
• Wanted to change our culture
» More professional; more systematic
» Learning organization, more responsibility and accountability
• Competitive Advantage
» Attract and retain best talent
» Increase candidate pool for crucial roles
• Provide skills for all employee owners to be engaged in leadership
• Intentional about succession for long term sustainability
Leadership Development Essentials and Advanced Program provide skills that support the Succession process.
1. Strategic Thinking
2. Assessing Performance / Potential
3. Developing the Ideal Team
4. Leader as Coach
5. Culture
6. Feedback
7. Systems Thinking
Succession Planning is a core job responsibility
1. Identify Future Organization / Key Roles
2. Define Competencies and Strategies
3. Identify Candidates
4. Assess Candidates and Readiness
5. Develop Candidates
6. Monitor Progress
7. Repeat (create routine)
Key Roles
• Strategic Importance, Specific Role Responsibilities
• Strategy for Succession (e.g., internal, external, etc.)
• Candidates
Assess Candidates
• Leadership Competencies
• Current Functions
• Future Functions
40% of Employee Owners are participating in committees or teams that drive critical business decisions and processes.
Substantial multi-year investment in all Employee Owners for training and ongoing learning.
• Understand the value of your investment
• Start anywhere
• Build a consistent language
• Define additional skills/knowledge needed at each level
• Set clear expectations that all managers develop potential successors
• Integrate skills into all talent management processes
• CEO/President must actively champion
Ginny Vanderslice
Founding Principal Praxis Consulting Group
Ginny@praxiscg.com
Carolyn
N. StanworthPresident
and CEO
BL Companies
Cstandworth@blcompanies.com
1. Scan the session QR Code on the door or directional signage nearby
2. Engage in the session content for all 60 minutes.
3. Input the secret word in the CE Session Survey. The secret word will be revealed in the speaker's presentation.
4. Complete the CE Survey.
1. Employees with too much work engagement may be exposed to a higher risk of burnout
2. A performance climate, with its emphasis on social comparison, may enhance burnout
3. A mastery climate, which focuses on growth, cooperation and effort, may mitigate the likelihood that employees become cynical towards work
Nerstad CGL, Wong SI, Richardsen AM. Can Engagement Go Awry and Lead to Burnout? The Moderating Role of the Perceived Motivational Climate. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2019 Jun 4;16(11):1979.
According to World Health Organization:
• Feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion
• Increased mental distance from one’s job or feelings negative towards one’s career
Reduced professional productivity
“Engagement is the attention and absorption that we bring to the job, but it doesn’t mean we’re not struggling in life…
Well-being includes the quality of our lives outside work, not just in the office.”
-Adam Grant
• 3 in 5 American workers feel stress or burnout due to work related matters (Gallup)
• Burned-out employees are 63% more likely to take a sick day and 2.6 times as likely to be actively seeking a different job. (Gallup Survey)
• 21% of workers say they were able to have open, productive conversations with HR about solutions to their burnout. (FlexJobs survey)
Gallup: What is the cost of poor wellbeing?
75% of medical costs accrued mostly due to preventable conditions
$20 million of additional lost opportunity for every 10,000 workers due to struggling or suffering employees
15% to 20% of total payroll in voluntary turnover costs, on average, due to burnout
$322 billion of turnover and lost productivity cost globally due to employee burnout
•Thriving: Your wellbeing is strong, consistent, and progressing.
•Struggling: Your wellbeing is moderate or inconsistent.
•Suffering: Your wellbeing is at high risk.
• Career Wellbeing
• You like what you do every day (and respect who you do it with)
• Social Wellbeing
• You have meaningful friendships in your life
• Financial Wellbeing
• Income, financial security, and financial literacy
• Physical Wellbeing
• You have energy to get things done.
• Community Wellbeing
• You like where you live.
1. Destigmatizetheconversationaround wellbeing and mental health
2. Create a work environment rooted in psychological safety
3. Takepreventativemeasuresagainstburnoutwith open and frequent team based communication
4. Encourage (perhaps even structure) REST!
5. Make the Economic Wellbeing of employee-owners a top priority
• Leaders speaking transparently about their own mental health struggles
• Model the behavior you want from others in leadership or management roles
• Mastery Climate > Performance Climate
“Icannotoverstatetheimportanceofaleaderand managersaying,Icaremoreaboutyourwell-beingthanI doaboutyourresults” –
“Psychological safety is a belief that one will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns or mistakes.“
-Amy Edmondson
• Does everyone at the table get a chance to speak up?
• Can I pick up on how you’re feeling based on non-social cues?
• Be intentional about how your teams prepare for absenteeism
• Normalize frequent check-ins on workloads and management of team responsiblities
• Distribute roles and responsibilities in the event of turnover or life’s unexpected challenges
• Eliminatesilosofknowledgeandexperience
• Explore alternatives to your PTO policies
• Consider using paid sabbatical leave as a reward for years of service
• Structure rest for teams or employee-owners based on seasonal or project timelines
• Flex Schedules are often more desirable than rewards or gym memberships
• Take initiative on financial literacy
• Provide robust health and medical benefits
• Prioritize livable and competitive wages in your industry and region
• Do not rely on the ESOP alone for employee-owners’ financial security