A couple of weeks ago, I saw Tarang Amin, CEO of E.L.F. beauty, interviewed.
Tarang said a lot of things, but one made me want to pinch myself.
He said that when he speaks to other CEO’s, they say things like, “I want my employees to feel real ownership of their brands and the organization.”
To which he says, “Ah, so they have shares in the company?”
“Well, no…”
“So really you want your employees to ACT like they own the company.”
I wanted to pinch myself because it was so refreshing to see a wildly successful business leader (E.L.F. has gone from $100M to $1B in ten years under his leadership) challenge the norms of most of today’s employer/employee relationship.
For years I’ve been saying that the work world has changed, but the way we develop leaders (employees) has not.
Little shifts over a long period have concealed the change. In my family we called this “salami tactic” — you don’t notice a small slice but pretty soon the salami is gone.
Companies have had to thin the ranks to deliver steady profits. That means fewer potential mentors and advisors.
Lifetime employment with the promise of a pension are largely gone.
And instead of an expanding economy that let employers provide regular raises, business uncertainty forces companies to hold on to cash to cushion the downturns.
And while this all makes sense from the top, it’s hard for the average employee.
How do they strategize their career?
What path provides enough certainty so that they can relax and do their work?
And that’s at the crux of the frustration I heard from senior leaders, “Why can’t they just do their work and trust us, the way I did at their age?”
Because Gen Z’s are in a very different reality.
In my work, I focus on giving mid-level professionals the tools to feel more control and certainty over their careers.
Because when employees can feel more certainty and control, they can relax and do their work.
If companies could shift policies to bring back some of the certainty, and employees could take more ownership of their careers, imagine what would be possible.
Collaboration, engagement and innovation can really gain momentum.